A lot of actors have been making the leap to director lately. Bo Burnham and Bradley Cooper have made their quite impressive directorial debuts already this year, and now Jonah Hill joins the throng with his reflective interpretation of a certain kind of childhood experience in Los Angeles in the mid ‘90s. Mid90s is the name of this film in fact, and Hill clearly put a lot of effort into its look and feel, though I wish he put more into making it an enjoyable experience.
Stevie (Sunny Suljic) is a kid growing up in Los Angeles with his single mother (Katherine Waterston) and bullying older brother Ian (Lucas Hedges). When he discovers a skateboarding shop seemingly run by a quartet of teenage troublemakers, he slowly works his way into joining their gang, idolizing their carefree daredevilry and anti-authoritarian attitudes.
Hill really commits to his aesthetic for this movie. If the film wasn’t actually shot on an old video camera, he goes the extra mile to make it look like it was. There’s a grainy, grimy look to the film that characterized most home videos made during that era, the colours are often desaturated and toned down, the lighting at times is almost certainly natural, and the aspect ratio is reduced to 4:3 for the entire runtime. Just as much detail goes into the fundamentally 90’s hairstyles, fashion trends and skater culture that dominated the California youth scene in the age of Tony Hawk. Yet the movie is smart enough not to just coast on nostalgic iconography. There are definitely instances of it, especially early on with Ninja Turtles bedsheets, Sunny-D, and Super Nintendo making appearances, but it’s focus is more on a specific character journey with the mid ‘90s as a mere backdrop.
The writing is also generally pretty good and authentic. There’s a very natural pace and cadence to the dialogue that is almost reminiscent of Richard Linklater, with the distinct style already making me think of Slacker by way of The 400 Blows. The movie also doesn’t hold back on the language of its adolescent characters, and I don’t mean just by letting them swear regularly. The casual sexism, homophobia, and racism of youth at the time is on full display in these boys. It’s possible this may have been a tad too far in the vein of realism though, because it’s one of the contributing factors to the characters not being very likeable and the story on a whole lacking resonance.
Sunny Suljic gives it his all, but for most of this movies runtime I hated Stevie, nicknamed “Sunburn” by his skater friends. And that’s not entirely unintentional -at a point he’s clearly not meant to be a good kid, but the whole trajectory of his arc in the film is inherently unlikeable. He’s about twelve years old and unsatisfied with his life, so he easily falls in with a troupe of bad influences. You can make out something of what Hill is going for in this, potentially a commentary on peer pressure and youth psychology; but the movie spends a lot of time with this quintet of hooligans making bad decisions, Stevie chief among them, and it isn’t pleasant to watch. There are uncomfortable sequences, one in particular between Stevie and a girl at least five years older than him that you feel uneasy watching. And I could abide stuff like this if there were a point, but there really doesn’t seem to be one. Stevie’s story doesn’t quite have a resolution and none of the skaters learn a lesson, even after multiple close calls. The closest to a likeable figure in the bunch is the de-facto leader Ray (Na-kel Smith), wise enough to want to get out of his stagnancy and who tries to impress on Stevie the importance of appreciating what he’s got, especially next to the fractured, impoverished backgrounds of the rest of the gang.
Stevie’s home-life is indeed not ideal, but he is still comparatively privileged. There’s a heavy implication that his mother is a sex worker, but this has no bearing on her caring demeanour and deep concern for his safety. The only evidence of family misfortune is his asshole of a brother, who belittles, mocks, and beats on him. Speaking as one, older brothers are assholes, and Ian’s not far removed from countless other mean and insecure teenagers, especially for that time. Lucas Hedges, as usual, is really great by the way and the best actor in the movie -though Waterston’s a close second. What’s important is there’s not a strong enough reason to compel Stevie into his destructive attitude and choices, and his coming-of-age is characterized by a rejection of learning from mistakes.
I think the intent of Hill with Mid90s was to offer a modern Californian answer to The 400 Blows (I would argue we already got that with Lady Bird). But he fails to make his lead character relatable in his miscreant actions or give him the endearing conscience that kept Antoine Doinel engaging. Still, Mid90s shouldn’t be dismissed outright and Hill certainly shows promise. I look forward to seeing his future projects behind the camera. He, like his protagonist, just needs to grow.
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