Movie Review: Mid90s

Mid90s *** ½ / *****

Directed by: Jonah Hill.

Written by: Jonah Hill.

Starring: Sunny Suljic (Stevie), Katherine Waterston (Dabney), Lucas Hedges (Ian), Na-kel Smith (Ray), Olan Prenatt (Fuckshit), Gio Galicia (Ruben), Ryder McLaughlin (Fourth Grade), Alexa Demie (Estee), Fig Camila Abner (Angela), Liana Perlich (Teresa), Ama Elsesser (Zoe), Judah Estrella Borunda (Sam), Mecca Allen (Sara), Del (Homeless man #1), Harmony Korine (Todd).

 

Jonah Hill’s debut film as a director, Mid90s, feels very much like a debut film by a promising filmmaker – the type of film someone makes before they go onto do something better. Because Mid90s is a bundle of influences that Hill has cribbed for his favorite filmmakers, a bundle of needle drops on the soundtrack full of songs he clearly loved from his childhood. It’s a film that for the first hour of its slim runtime feels like it wants to avoid any semblance of a plot or phony dramatics – and then crams three movies worth of them in the last half hour, ending on a confusing note. And yet, at its best, Mid90s feels like the work of a natural filmmaker. I wouldn’t be surprised if Hill really does go on to direct a great film one day.

 

In Mid90s, the story focuses on Stevie (Sunny Suljic) a 13-year-old kid from California somewhere. He gets beat up and picked on by his older brother, Ian (Lucas Hedges), and has a single mother, Dabney (Katherine Waterson) who cares about her son, but doesn’t entirely pay attention to him. Stevie is drifting in his life – no real friends, no real interests, etc. – until he sees a quartet of teenagers on skateboards, mouthing off to a store owner who doesn’t want them in front of his shop. To Stevie, these are the coolest kids in the world – and he sets out to become one of them, despite the fact he has no idea how to skateboard.

 

Stevie will eventually learn that – kind of, he’s still no very good at the end of the film, but he’s working on it. This closed group of four accepts Stevie in as one of their own – for reasons the film never makes entirely clear, but may just because he won’t go away, and they’re fairly easygoing. The coolest of the older kids is Ray (Na-kel Smith), who is the best at skateboarding, and wants to go pro. His best friend is Fuckshit (Olan Prenatt) – whose nickname is apt – who once was like Ray, but now seems to be drifting into a life of one, long endless party. Fourth Grade (Ryder McLaughlin) is constantly filming everything on his camera – he says he wants to make a movie one day, and the other mock him for that, but he does it anyway. Then there is Ruben (Gio Galicia), who until Stevie showed up was the youngest of the group – and the one who accepts Stevie first – and will get angry at him first as well.

 

The first hour of the film drifts from one scene to another, where this group drifts from one skate park to another, one party to another, etc. The dynamics in the group come clearer the more we watch them – and we sense, even if the characters don’t, that this group won’t be together for that much longer. That Stevie, as much as he wants to belong, never quite will. It’s a portrait of this insular group, who can say horrible things to each other and get away with it. The language here is strong and offensive – but true to what teenage boys say to each other when there’s no one else around. The film is at its strongest when it’s just on this group – a portrait of toxic masculinity in its early stages (as one of the few girls says to Stevie, he’s at that age right before guys become assholes).

 

The movie is at its weakest when it seems to try and force things. There is a blowup when Stevie’s mother snaps into parenting action for the first time, and yells at his new friends, that doesn’t really go anyway. Stevie’s first sexual encounter is documented – not graphically – but in enough detail to make you extremely uncomfortable (not least of which is that Suljic doesn’t even look 13, which would still be very young) – and feels like Hill’s attempt to recreated Larry Clark’s Kids (a clear influence throughout). When the dynamics that we sense underlying everything come to a head in the last scenes of the film, it feels forced – not the way these characters would handle things. The ill-advised montage that ends the film, puts a romantic angle on the film that doesn’t really make sense given what we just saw.

 

At its best though, Mid90s does feel like the work of a natural filmmaker. Yes, right now, Hill is too reliant on his influences – and his soundtrack, which is filled with great songs from the era, as well as fine work by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross on the score – but his instincts are good. He doesn’t over explain everything – he lets it take its time. Mid90s isn’t a great film – but it shows Hill may well have one in him.