mid90s

Jonah Hill made his directional debut with the movie mid90s, a coming-of-age comedy-drama set in 1990s Los Angeles. Hill drew on inspiration from his own childhood in the 1990s and this is evident from the clear sense of nostalgia throughout the movie. Hill was a keen skateboarder in the 90s and said that he wanted to properly represent skate culture in the 90s so decided to not only include moments from his own childhood, but also that all of the skating actors in the movies would be people who were skateboarders in real life.

The movie is based on a young boy, Stevie who lives with his older brother Ian, who is extremely abusive, and his single mother Dabney. The movie starts with a harrowing scene of Stevie being abused by Ian. One day Stevie sees a group of four skaters in a skate shop and returns home and begs his brother for a skateboard. He then goes to the skate shop and befriends the four skaters: Ruben, Ray, F*cksh*t and Fourth Grade. They teach him how to skate and take him under their wing, taking him everywhere with them including to parties.

When Stevie comes home intoxicated after a party, him and Ian get into a fight and Ian has a mental breakdown when Stevie points out his lack of friendships. His mother then bans him from hanging out with the other boys, but Stevie rebels and goes back to the skate shop. There, him and Ray have a heart-warming conversation about how the other boys help each other with their tough moments in life and he then takes Stevie out skating all night.

The skate shop then hosts a movie, where F*cksh*t gets incredibly intoxicated and tries to embarrass Ray in front of the pro-skaters who are trying to recruit him and Ruben and Stevie get into a fight in front of all of the other partygoers. F*cksh*t then attempts to drive the boys home, while still being incredibly drunk which results in a car crash and Stevie in a hospital bed.

The movie ends with reconciliation, Ian and Stevie are finally on the same page and their relationship is improving, Dabney allows the skaters to go and see Stevie after seeing them waiting for him in the hospital waiting room. The skaters then watch the movie, entitled ‘mid90s’, that Fourth Grade has been filming for the duration of the film and the movie ends with them all skating in Fourth Grade’s movie.

In mid90s, we see Sunny Suljic (a professional skateboarder and child actor) in his first ever lead role. He did an excellent job of portraying a young boy with many emotional and family troubles. The other skaters in the film: Ray, F*cksh*t, Ruben and Fourth Grade are also all professional skaters which helps to make the film seem more natural and realistic. Lucas Hedges portrays Stevie’s abusive older brother, and his acting is so good in this movie that you forget he is acting and it seems more like a documentation of a brother’s abusive behaviour. Katherine Waterson and Alexa Demie also star as Stevie’s mother and a girl with which Stevie has his first sexual experience respectively.

I think that this movie deserves four stars because it is very entertaining, very realistic, has many likeable characters – many of whom have excellent character development, and it also has a very good plot. The soundtrack is also a large reason for the amount of enjoyability in this film as as well as its own original music, it features many songs from the 1990s such as “Passin’ Me By” by “The Pharcyde” and “93 ‘Til Infinity” by “Souls Of Mischief” which definitely place the film in the 90s and give it a more nostalgic feel. There is also clever symbolism in the movie, such as orange juice which is used throughout the movie to represent the power dynamic of Stevie and Ian’s relationship. At the start of the movie, we see Ian drinking orange juice when he is being abusive towards Stevie and it is evident that he is the one with the power in the relationship. In Stevie and Ian’s big fight, we see Stevie injuring Ian and causing him to have a breakdown, and we see Stevie drinking the orange juice which represents the the power dynamic has now shifted so that Stevie is the one with the power. By the end of the movie, Stevie and Ian have reached equilibrium in their relationship. They both have a mutual respect and understanding of each other, and this is represented by them both drinking orange juice together as they are now on the same level of authority and power.

The reason I think that this movie is deserving of four stars instead of five is simply that there were many unanswered questions in the movie and many things that could have been developed and talked about more. An example of this is Stevie’s self-harm throughout the movie: there are many instances in mid90s where Stevie hurts himself in order to rid himself of guilt and punish himself but we never see how this started or whether it ends or continues. All the skaters also have their own issues that aren’t really talked about like Fourth Grade’s poverty, F*cksh*t’s drug addiction and alcohol abuse and Ruben’s abusive drug addicted mother. I feel like if these things were developed further the movie would have been even better and it would have been deserving of five stars.

Overall, I would say that mid90s is definitely worth watching as it is a very enjoyable movie and one of my own personal favourites. I would however say there are quite a few hard to watch, uncomfortable scenes throughout the movie. These include the previously mentioned abuse of Stevie by his brother and Stevie’s self harm, and also a long, sexual scene featuring Stevie and a much older girl. But if you can get over these things, then I would say this film is definitely one to watch!