Not so long ago, I got the chance to finally see Jonah Hill’s directorial debut, Mid90s. Hill was able to create a cautionary tale of adolescence. The film is based around 13-year-old Stevie, (Sunny Suljic), in Los Angeles who is constantly bullied by his quick-tempered and often violent brother Ian, played by Lucas Hedges, and gets caught up into a crowd of skater boys.
Stevie is a pretty small guy, with large blue eyes and a shock of brown hair on his head. At first Stevie idolises Ian, whose interests mostly include streetwear and hip-hop: in which he generally responds with silence or a brutal beating. Eventually, Stevie finds a new group of older dudes to idolize, along with making it his mission to gain their approval.
It’s safe to say that this is definitely a directorial debut. A messy one, at that. For one, the pacing is all over the place. One minute they’re running from the cops the next they’re on a couch playing video games saying nothing and then you’re confused. The movie is about 80 minutes long, and by today’s standards that makes it relatively short, but then what feels like takes up more than half of the film is the intro. The intro generally consisted of Stevie staring at something, and by then it’s safe to say I wasn’t enjoying it, but more or less- waiting for something to actually happen.
All of the actors are either relatively new or young or both. And frankly it shows, there were some parts where the scenes seemed rushed and the characters emotions weren’t exactly captured. This resulted in moments feeling clunky and unnatural.
At this point, it may sound like I hated this film. And that’s pretty far from the truth, I mean It’s definitely not my favorite, but I still really enjoyed it. Between the boxy framing and grainy finish this movie really embraces a “time capsule” aesthetic. As for the movie itself, there isn’t really a storyline between guys skating and describing their backgrounds and aspirations. Where Stevie experiences many firsts, whereas it be his first cigarette to his first kiss, and the film really walks us through this in an almost episodic like fashion. Overall: 7.5/10
Stevie is a pretty small guy, with large blue eyes and a shock of brown hair on his head. At first Stevie idolises Ian, whose interests mostly include streetwear and hip-hop: in which he generally responds with silence or a brutal beating. Eventually, Stevie finds a new group of older dudes to idolize, along with making it his mission to gain their approval.
It’s safe to say that this is definitely a directorial debut. A messy one, at that. For one, the pacing is all over the place. One minute they’re running from the cops the next they’re on a couch playing video games saying nothing and then you’re confused. The movie is about 80 minutes long, and by today’s standards that makes it relatively short, but then what feels like takes up more than half of the film is the intro. The intro generally consisted of Stevie staring at something, and by then it’s safe to say I wasn’t enjoying it, but more or less- waiting for something to actually happen.
All of the actors are either relatively new or young or both. And frankly it shows, there were some parts where the scenes seemed rushed and the characters emotions weren’t exactly captured. This resulted in moments feeling clunky and unnatural.
At this point, it may sound like I hated this film. And that’s pretty far from the truth, I mean It’s definitely not my favorite, but I still really enjoyed it. Between the boxy framing and grainy finish this movie really embraces a “time capsule” aesthetic. As for the movie itself, there isn’t really a storyline between guys skating and describing their backgrounds and aspirations. Where Stevie experiences many firsts, whereas it be his first cigarette to his first kiss, and the film really walks us through this in an almost episodic like fashion. Overall: 7.5/10