It might try to disguise itself as a sort of pseudo mood-piece, a visual poem driven by nostalgia, but there's no denying that it runs on a narrative like so many others. Little, to no, exposition doesn't excuse a weak story and it doesn't mean that there has to be a bevy of themes to take the place of a more rigorous one. See, 'Mid90s (2019)' is the sort of film where nothing really happens but where that just so happens to kind of be be the point, taking its cues from the recent 'Skate Kitchen (2018)' and, even more noticeably, its brother-piece 'Kids (1995)'. It tries to evoke a feeling through a sense of time and place. It's not necessarily all that successful - at least, not all the time - primarily because you don't really get a solid grip on its setting, especially for a flick named after it, and because the characters that we spend time with don't exactly exude the kind of camaraderie that's supposed to be oh-so enticing to us. Most of the movie is dedicated to candid scenes of kids behaving badly, which are engaging enough but don't evolve in the way you'd expect. Indeed, the entire affair ends just when you think its about to get interesting, abruptly cutting off several core-players' in-progress arcs with no real resolution. It doesn't help that it feels as though it's sometimes trying to be 'edgy' for the sake of it, even if it also has quite a few moments of pure authenticity. In any case, you often find yourself actually empathising with the parents and their very valid concerns. If you don't want to see drug-use depicted without judgement - and, essentially, consequence-free - maybe skip this one. It might sound like I didn't like it at all but there were certainly things to enjoy. The soundtrack, for one, is great; it evokes almost all the intangible feelings of youthful alienation and rose-tinted nostalgia that the movie itself can't quite crack. Most individual scenes also play out in rather entertaining ways. Na-Kel Smith's character is refreshingly mature and his performance matches - though, all the performances are pretty great, to be honest. It's just that the feature didn't feel as though it was really about anything. Was it about skating, the mid-90s, childhood, nostalgia or just friendship? The latter is the thing that shines through, being the most enjoyable aspect and most prominent theme. Still, as a whole, it sort of felt like there was something missing. I wasn't bored, but I didn't exactly care, either. 6/10