Movie Reaction: Mid90s

Formula: Brink! * The Florida Project

I like Jonah Hill. He's the star of my second favorite movie of all time (Superbad). I'm a loyal devotee of that Judd Apatow crew that has defined a lot of the comedy scene over the last dozen or so years. He's a solid dramatic actor too, with two Oscar nominations (he definitely deserved one). He's been contributing more as a writer in his recent films. The move to directing feels pretty natural. That he chose Mid90s as his directorial debut (he also wrote the screenplay) is a little surprising.

Mid90s is about Stevie (Sunny Suljic) a - I don't know - 12-year-old living in California with his young, single mother (Katherine Waterston) and meat head brother (Lucas Hedges). Stevie starts hanging out at a local skate shop and makes friends with the guys who work or chill there. That crew represents all the kind of guys you'd expect to be skateboarders in the 90s. There's Ray (Na-kel Smith), who is by far the best skater and most responsible person in the group. He wants to be a professional skater as a way to get out of his meager circumstances. Fuckshit (Olan Prenatt) uses skating as a way to avoid all responsibly, drink, and party. Ruben (Gio Galicia) is an angry kid who mostly just needs somewhere to go to get away from his rough home life. Fourth Grade (Ryder McLauighlin) is the aspiring filmmaker of the group, because every skate crew in the 90s had to have one of those. Most of the movie is spent developing all the characters and explaining their relationships. Ray and Fuckshit are best friends going in different directions with their lives. Ruben is a jerk and jealous of Stevie. Stevie's mom had kids way too young, but she's making the best of it now. Stevie and his brother fight a lot and fight rough. You'll recognize a lot of the characters if you've ever seen a coming-of-age or "family of misfits" movie.

In fact, Mid90s is a checklist movie. There aren't any beats that feel particularly new or unexpected. The rise and fall structure follows pretty predictably. There's the moment of discovery, learning about the sub-culture, the big moment of acceptance, the good times, the excess, and the comeuppance. Oddly, I kept thinking about how this movie felt like a music biopic in the way the beats played out. Predictability isn't necessarily bad. I love a good hang-out movie. And the skate crew is entertaining enough to follow for 90 minutes. I especially loved Na-kel Smith's Ray. Most directors would feel pressured to expose more of his flaws, but Hill lets Ray just be a good dude. He's a reminder that Stevie becoming part of this world doesn't have to end with him being a burnout.

Ultimately, Mid90s doesn't amount to all that much. Where it ends left me really underwhelmed. There's a whole self-harm plot line with Stevie that goes nowhere by the end. His relationship with his brother and mother have no real resolution. His mother makes a decision at the end that rings entirely false, given what has happened and who is responsible. The stories of all his skate friends are similarly unresolved. I guess the idea is that life keeps going on and things rarely come together with a Hollywood ending. I'm not even sure what the arc of the story is though. It's just "here's this world, here's the problems in it, and bye".

Mid90s is imperfect, but very watchable. Jonah Hill assembled a great young cast of mostly unknowns. I wouldn't be surprised to see Sunny Suljic, Na-kel Smith, or Olan Prenatt start showing up in a lot more movies after this. I think Hill tries a little too hard though to hide the fact that this isn't an indie movie coming from someone on the outside looking in. I was bothered by the 4:3 ratio the whole movie is in. I understand that it's meant to evoke all the skate movies that were circulated in the 90s, but it looks like he's trying to ugly the movie up. I keep comparing how this movie looks to how something like The Florida Project looks. The Florida Project is much more authentically messy. The music is almost too good in Mid90s, like Hill was able to get his first choice for everything. Part of what's fun with indie movies is that they often have to be inventive with limited resources. Mid90s comes off like they tried to make it as an indie, but they always had the ability to make things easier if needed. There's enough that I liked to make me curious about Hill's next project as a director. Mid90s is more of a noble miss though.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend