"Mid90s" is an award-winning American movie from 2018. Writer, director and producer is two-time Oscar-nominated actor Jonah Hill. I must say I am not really big on him as an actor at all admittedly, but he did a really decent job with this one that I am almost tempted to say that he may very well be a better filmmaker than actor. The next years (and projects) will tell. It is far from his first effort as writer really, but this was his first "real" movie as a director. What he directed before were mostly music videos and definitely not too many at all. You will not really recognize many actors in his film here. The biggest name in the cast is without a doubt Lucas Hedges, a pretty young actor himself, but also already an Oscar nominee. He plays the protagonist's brother. The main character himself is played by Sunny Suljic. And while Suljic has received some accolades for his portrayal and certainly done a good job with a character that is in basically every scene here from start to finish, it almost never feels like a character study. It is a bit of everything. First of all, like the title says it is about depicting the 90s and what happened back then. There are many references to this decade that started almost 30 years ago already now. Man how time flies. The references include t-shirts and a lot of other stuff. There is a Mr. Burns Simpsons mention. I really liked the Guile Streetfighter shirt early on. Beavis & Butthead are included as well. And there is a lot more. I won't go that much into detail now. But you will recognize it when you see it. However, the longer the film went, the less frequent these inclusions were which I thought was a bit of a pity. Still Hill did a fine job without a doubt in making this film look extremely 90s. I mean if you showed it to an unsuspecting crowd and tell them this was made back in 1990, they probably would believe it.
Then there is of course the story of the main character, a boy struggling with violence from his brother and lack of a future somehow too during his puberty and there is certainly a coming-of-age component in here, not only because he makes his first sexual experience. It is also about friendship as these people he meets during the most uncommon introduction sequence that includes sexual references about parents and if you think that was a lot already wait till you hear what direction it is heading. But the friendship component also includes the slightly older boy that Stevie initially is friends with, one who is also fairly insecure (the "thank you" part) and who quickly becomes jealous of Stevie's rising popularity with the cool older guys. The T-shirt part is the best moment. Another would be if you look at his face when Stevie's mom shows up. By the way, it is absolutely not racist to ask if Black people can get sunburn! In general, Hill did a very good job with the casting and with making each and every character memorable in his own right. Even the silent guy with the camera has his moment in the spotlight when he keeps talking about his film ambitions that were pretty hilarious. There are many funny moments in this movie, you will laugh a lot watching it, most of all in these sequences when Stevie tries to seem all mature and grown-up, like when he tells his story with the girl from Disneyland. Overall, I quite liked the use of shades in this movie. The violent brother who is at the end at the protagonist's bedside is just one example here. No matter which character you pick, you will find realistically flawed people in here. Addiction is a subject for many. Or the mother who is caring, but also does not care much about her son recognizing how promiscuous she is. And while there are always conflicts between characters, especially the "gang", they always somehow stick together like when in the end they are all at the hospital. Sadly, there are at least 3 crucial moments when Hill messed up a bit. One would be the fact that they let the really drunk guy drive. I am not talking about how they should not have let him, this is obvious of course. But I am talking about how they would not have let him realistically. Maybe the two younger ones weren't self-confident enough already, maybe even the camera guy was not confident enough already, but I am 100% sure Ray would have interfered. Then there is the scene with the controller cable that is really painful to watch actually and I am saying this as somebody who generally does not mind violence in films. But to me this reaction did not feel too realistic honestly, just over-the-top to shock the audience. Other people may see it differently perhaps. And finally that the mother after the gang almost killed their son because of the alcohol does not mind them being around and still lets them see him. This felt especially unrealistic with how she acted earlier. There's just no way she would have changed her mind. And finally in the end with the closing credits the bridge Hill builds between the silent camera guy and this film we have here also felt a bit clumsy to me actually. But these criticisms do not destroy the film. Far from it actually. Maybe they just keep a good film from becoming a great one.. I was genuinely entertained from beginning to end here and I think this relatively short movie at 85 minutes certainly deserves to be checked out. It has some great comedy moments, some edge-of-seat drama moments and you can see from Hill's camera work that he has worked with some great directors in his career and learned quite a bit. Not one of the best movies of 2018, but definitely among the better. I give it a thumbs-up!
Then there is of course the story of the main character, a boy struggling with violence from his brother and lack of a future somehow too during his puberty and there is certainly a coming-of-age component in here, not only because he makes his first sexual experience. It is also about friendship as these people he meets during the most uncommon introduction sequence that includes sexual references about parents and if you think that was a lot already wait till you hear what direction it is heading. But the friendship component also includes the slightly older boy that Stevie initially is friends with, one who is also fairly insecure (the "thank you" part) and who quickly becomes jealous of Stevie's rising popularity with the cool older guys. The T-shirt part is the best moment. Another would be if you look at his face when Stevie's mom shows up. By the way, it is absolutely not racist to ask if Black people can get sunburn! In general, Hill did a very good job with the casting and with making each and every character memorable in his own right. Even the silent guy with the camera has his moment in the spotlight when he keeps talking about his film ambitions that were pretty hilarious. There are many funny moments in this movie, you will laugh a lot watching it, most of all in these sequences when Stevie tries to seem all mature and grown-up, like when he tells his story with the girl from Disneyland. Overall, I quite liked the use of shades in this movie. The violent brother who is at the end at the protagonist's bedside is just one example here. No matter which character you pick, you will find realistically flawed people in here. Addiction is a subject for many. Or the mother who is caring, but also does not care much about her son recognizing how promiscuous she is. And while there are always conflicts between characters, especially the "gang", they always somehow stick together like when in the end they are all at the hospital. Sadly, there are at least 3 crucial moments when Hill messed up a bit. One would be the fact that they let the really drunk guy drive. I am not talking about how they should not have let him, this is obvious of course. But I am talking about how they would not have let him realistically. Maybe the two younger ones weren't self-confident enough already, maybe even the camera guy was not confident enough already, but I am 100% sure Ray would have interfered. Then there is the scene with the controller cable that is really painful to watch actually and I am saying this as somebody who generally does not mind violence in films. But to me this reaction did not feel too realistic honestly, just over-the-top to shock the audience. Other people may see it differently perhaps. And finally that the mother after the gang almost killed their son because of the alcohol does not mind them being around and still lets them see him. This felt especially unrealistic with how she acted earlier. There's just no way she would have changed her mind. And finally in the end with the closing credits the bridge Hill builds between the silent camera guy and this film we have here also felt a bit clumsy to me actually. But these criticisms do not destroy the film. Far from it actually. Maybe they just keep a good film from becoming a great one.. I was genuinely entertained from beginning to end here and I think this relatively short movie at 85 minutes certainly deserves to be checked out. It has some great comedy moments, some edge-of-seat drama moments and you can see from Hill's camera work that he has worked with some great directors in his career and learned quite a bit. Not one of the best movies of 2018, but definitely among the better. I give it a thumbs-up!