MID-90s



US, 2018, 85 minutes, Colour.
Sunny Suljic, Katherine Waterston, Lucas Hedges, Na-kel Smith, Olan Prenayy, Gio Galicia, Ryder McLaughlin?.
Directed by Jonah Hill.

This is the first feature film written and directed by Jonah Hill, very well known for his early comedies and later moving into more serious roles, including The Wolf of Wall Street.

Hill was born in 1983 which makes him 12 to 13 in the mid-90s. He was also born in Los Angeles.

This is a very American story, very Los Angeles, about young boys and about adolescence. It has its parallels, of course, with growing up in other cities, especially in the United States, but also around the world. It also has its parallels with what life was like for adolescents in the middle of any decade.

The focus of the film is on the young lad, Stevie (Sunny Sujik), rather quiet at home, living with his mother, Katherine Waterston, and his older brother, turning 18 (and reference made to his mother giving birth to him at eight). Lucas Hedges (Ben is Back, Boy Erased, Three Billboards) plays Ian, the older brother, a taciturn young man.

Most of the film shows Stevie becoming more and more involved with the older group who hang around, expert in skateboarding (and Stevie is definitely not), but of smoking, issues with drugs, sexual encounters – and plenty of the kind of adolescents boasting. The range of friends is varied, some very gung ho (though they do have some moments), Na-kel Smith, a more sympathetic African- American friend who takes notice of. Then the ups and downs in friendships, and his, some jealousy is. There are also the girls, especially older girls, sympathetic, but interested in initiating the young boys in sexual behaviour – which has quite an effect on Stevie.

His mother intervenes at various times, laying down the law on the young men.

Stevie has an accident, is hospitalised, his mother concerned but also inviting the group into the hospital room to be with Stevie.

The film is most likely to appeal to the age range of the central characters. It may have some appeal to parents who are concerned about their adolescent children and trying to understand them. Larry Clarke did a similar thing for the Kids of his time, the film coming out in the mid-90s, a far more stark film than Mid90s with the behaviour of the characters and the seeming absence of their parents.