'Mid90s' Review

Hello everyone! I realize it's almost been a month since I last shared a review, but that's largely due to a series of extenuating circumstances I've dealt with these last few weeks. If you'd like to know about the cause of these delays, I'll indulge you with a paragraph rambling about such. Otherwise, feel free to go ahead and proceed to the review. 

Aside from facing plenty of schoolwork, I mostly didn't go out to the theater much last month due to lacking interest in most of the new releases. However, I was also out of town for the weekend of October 21st, so I didn't go to the theater that weekend, then my car was broken into and my laptop was stolen mere days after I returned from that outing and a day after I saw a screening of Mid90s  Since that's what I used to write reviews and create promotional banner images, this review was put on the back-burner. I went ahead and purchased a new laptop, but had to deal with importing my most recent back-up (luckily, my Mac backed up the day it was stolen, so I didn't lose any files). Then, I, of course, had homework assignments to complete and turn in. After that, I made more progress on a video about Star Wars: The Last Jedi I've been working on since September. I plan to have that completed by December 15th to share on the year anniversary of The Last Jedi's theatrical release for those curious. Then, I got sick at the tail-end of last week and was home practically all last weekend. Again, wasn't able to get out and watch anything at the theater. Since I was stuck at home, I began binge-watching Breaking Bad for the first time and admittedly became quite obsessed with the series (watching all five seasons in about six days and starting Better Call Saul soon afterward). 

Anyways, I went out to see Bohemian Rhapsody with a friend this Tuesday and then saw Suspiria (2018) Thursday evening so you can expect reviews for those two films in the coming days. I'll soon be seeing Overlord, Beautiful Boy, and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald so look forward to those reviews as well. Otherwise, I haven't really seen anything new in a while so I'll try and catch up where I can, but don't be surprised if I just never get around to certain films due to November's crowded slate of releases.

'Mid90s' Review

Mid90s follows Stevie, a thirteen-year-old boy living in 90s-era LA who spends his summer navigating between his troubled home life and a group of new friends that he meets at a Motor Avenue skate shop.

Serving as his feature-length directorial debut, Mid90s is written and directed by Jonah Hill. Though Mid90s admittedly isn't as impressive as many of this year's other feature directorial debuts, Hill's film is a sold coming-of-age story, to say the least. Like its central crew of skaters, Mid90s is a little rough around the edges, but its imperfections only enable the film to feel all the more authentic when all is said-and-done. The story's structured rather sloppily yet the human drama manages to be quite affecting in moments. The editing's a little less than ideal, but the film flows fairly well at a brisk hour and twenty-five minutes. For all its faults, Mid90s still manages to successfully persevere and endear. 

Without a doubt, the camaraderie and kinship amongst the skaters is the film's primary selling point. Hill wisely went out on a limb by casting non-professional actors, but the decision paid off since their youthful exuberance felt much more genuine. Na-kel Smith, Olan Prenatt, Gio Galicia, and Ryder McLane each effectively underscore that juvenile sensibility while the young eleven-year-old Sunny Suljic turns in an excellent lead performance, exhibiting maturity and depth far beyond his years. Otherwise, Katherine Waterston made for a credible, authoritative figure as Stevie's mother who was ultimately underserved by the script while Lucas Hedges seemed miscast as an abusive older brother. 

The only other thing that somewhat bothered me was how Hill seemed to glorify underage drinking, drug use, and sex, seeing as children partake in each of those. The latter of which was especially awkward, though nothing was technically shown. I understand the audience is witnessing all of these events through the eyes of adolescent boys, but much of this had no bearing on the story at hand so it could have easily been cut out.

Narratively, Mid90s ticks many of the boxes indie coming-of-age films tend to abide by, but Mid90s still skates confidently into its stride on behalf of its assured direction, prime performances, and endearing imperfections.

Film Assessment: B