Film Review: Mid90s

Stevie (Sunny Suljic) is about to get a lesson in teenage wish-fulfillment in Jonah Hill's tale of bro's and skateboards, 'mid90s'. Still courtesy of A24 Films (US) / Altitude Releasing (UK)

'Mid90s' is the entirely unexpected directorial debut of Jonah Hill. a comedian whose gifts were, until this point, up for debate. Hill struck me as the kind of guy who would shine a torch under his chin to look creepy - 24/7, doesn't matter. He is too sinister to be in family comedies. His purpose in life is to throw Seth Rogen into light relief. When he does voice work, as in the 'How to Train Your Dragon' movies, you don't notice it's him. I mean seriously, Dreamworks, why not save some cash? Having reached a certain level of fame, he has turned to directing with an anti-nostalgic look at the middle 1990s, when Bill Clinton was in the White House. Hill has watched 'Kids', the 1995 quasi-realist film about New York street children, who smoke, drink and spread sexual disease. 'Mid90s' owes Larry Clark and Harmony Korine big time - it is fortunate that Hill is on the other side of the country in California.

Hill's alter ego is Stevie (Sunny Suljic from 'The Killing of a Sacred Deer') who at the beginning of the drama gets slammed against the wall by his older brother Ian (Lucas Hedges). Stevie seriously idolizes Ian - his taste in music and such. He just wants to grow up. When he visits a skateboarding shop and hangs out with some boarders (or skaters), he finds his place in the world. He also demonstrates that he can take a hit.

If you don't like seeing kids smoking and swearing, you will not like this movie. If you think skateboarding is boring, you will not like this movie. If you think that Stevie makes his single mother (Katherine Waterston) worry too much, you will not - etc.

'Mid90s' isn't strictly speaking autobiographical. I mean, how could Hill get on a skateboard if he was holding a torch under his chin? It has the veneer of truth. My older brother was cool and he still kicked the blue blazes out of me. What surprised me though was at one point Stevie didn't flinch. You anticipate the violence, damn it - you flinch.

Stevie learns that only cool kids don't have nicknames - one of the group is called Fuckshit (Olan Prenatt) so that Hill can get some crude-ass thrill out of seeing critics reproduce that name in reviews. Stevie's way-in is Ruben (Gio Galicia), hitherto the baby of the group. Ruben wants to climb up a rung, but gets displaced when Stevie effectively lives his life, down to a party scene when a young girl takes an interest. That is the scene when I said to myself, 'you have got to be kidding'. 

Stevie gets a surrogate brother in Ray (Na-kel Smith) who lost his own bro tragically young. Ray gives Stevie a skateboard, right after Stevie stole money from his mother to buy a second-hand one.

There are at least three 'heart-in-mouth' moments. Firstly, the opening fight. Then a skateboarding accident. Finally - well that would be telling.

In one scene, Stevie's new friends ball out a security guard for being 'a fake cop'. I felt sorry for the guard. They also skate down the middle of a busy road, a shot Hill thinks is so cool that he uses it twice. He's right - it is cool.

On 'Blockbuster' [movie rental] night, would Stevie's mom really put on 'Goodfellas'? Hill acted for its director, Martin Scorsese, in 'The Wolf Of Wall Street' and wanted to pay it backward, I guess. One of the more believable scenes has Stevie's mom march him down to the skateboard store and say to the kids that they are not to hang out with her son.

'Mid90s' speaks to any kid who had trouble belonging. There is a scene when Stevie's friends make Ian look small. It is almost a Hollywood punch-the-air and ruin the view of the person sitting behind you moment. The plotting is a little too diagrammatic, down to the movie-within-a-movie at the end.

Hill uses music really effectively, with an eclectic mix of Philip Glass and Morrissey. It is set to a higher volume than normal movie music to the extent that it drowns out the dialogue. It is like being at a party when you have to lean forward and, oh my gosh, I spilled my drink. The soundtrack is a bit like a bookcase that our eye is directed to a little too prominently. You think, he hasn't read all those books. No, because he uses the inside of them to hide his weed.

The calculated mix of hard-knock crashes and shameless speechifying make 'Mid90s' arresting to a point. You know that Stevie and Ruben are going to get into one. At no point does Stevie's friends slip into hardcore criminality. It's kitsch. 

I did have a secret desire that Hill would helm a prequel, 'mid70s', paying homage to the films of Jon Jost. A movie critic can dream.

'Mid90s' opens in the UK on 12 April 2019.