“Mid90s” review

Films about skateboarding have historically been inaccurate and poorly portrayed, so when Jonah Hill decided to write and direct one for his directorial debut, I was more than shocked. The movie, by the name of “Mid90s,” portrays a coming of age story about a young skateboarder who entangles himself in bad habits, but makes a smattering of true friends in the process.

The film begins with a scene of the main character, 13 year old Stevie, being thrown against the wall of the hallway of his home by his borderline abusive older brother. Stevie’s brother is his main enemy throughout the film, and drives Stevie to escape by picking up skateboarding. After taking his older brother’s old skateboard, he heads to a shop and makes a few friends who are much older than him, and not necessarily good influences.

To attempt a period piece about the nineties is an audacious move for novice director, Jonah Hill. Hill got his break in the realm of comedy, so to rebrand himself as an artsy film-type is a big move for him. Critics criticize him for the lack of plot, but many say the imagery is spot on.

“Skateboarding is cool but the movies are trash,” said Nathan Conway, 12. “Jonah Hill should stick to acting.”

In my opinion, Hill did a fantastic job at portraying the details accurately, all the way down to the trash. The costumes are fantastic and authentic. The film is quite aesthetically satisfying as well. The plot however, is hardly exciting. I was a bit confused the whole time as to what the point is, and some of the events of the movie were extremely unsettling to me.

The main actor of the film, Sunny Suljic, was only 11 years old at the time of filming. In spite of this, he was filmed in some questionable scenes including scenes that involve smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, and engaging in sexual activities. Now I am sure that this was completely safely filmed, and he was never actually smoking or drinking any explicit substances, however, the sexually explicit content was questionable.

Suljic was obviously engaging in sexual behavior with a girl who is much older than him. I thought that not only was this inappropriate for Sunny as an 11 year old actor, but also a very cheap, dull contribution to the plot. I was disappointed in Jonah Hill for writing this scene in, because of course the young kid has to be borderline statutory raped in order to gain “cool” points in front of his much older friends. This was extremely disconcerting to me, and successfully spoiled the movie. I really wanted to enjoy the movie in its entirety, but that scene left me very disappointed.

I quite enjoyed the medium of the film, but the plot was incomplete in nature, and the questionable scenes left a bad taste in my mouth. Overall I would rate the movie a 6/10.