Mid 90s (2018)

As someone who spent the mid noughties hanging around skate parks, wearing baggy jeans and listening to hip-hop, you could say I’m pretty close to being the target audience for Mid 90s (2018) Jonah Hill’s directorial debut - which may also mean I’m slightly more forgiving of its flaws than others.

The film follows the day to day life of 13 year old Stevie (played by newcomer Sunny Suljić, who we last saw in Yorgos Lamrathmos’s Killing of a Sacred Deer) as he discovers the LA skate scene, and the drinking, smoking and generally getting up to no good that come as part and parcel of picking up a skateboard in California.

Continuing in the great skater movie tradition of (and clearly drawing inspiration from) films such as Larry Clark’s Kids, Hill’s film adopts a similar DIY tone and hits many of the same coming of age notes, without ever descending into the overtly gritty or problematic depths of Clark’s 1995 movie.

However, it is precisely when the movie attempts to inject conflict and drama that it is often found wanting. Our hero Stevie (Or ‘Sunburn’ as he’s known to the ragtag band of skaters who adopt him into their crew) nominally has a ‘troubled’ home life, although it is often not entirely clear what this entails.

Fleeting glimpses of Stevie self-harming seem almost throwaway, and the film can’t quite seem to make up its mind if his mum is absent and irresponsible with vague references to her (shock horror) sleeping with men, or fiercely maternal when confronting the crew for leading her son astray. Stevie’s brother (played excellently here by rising star Lucas Hedges) is violent and manipulative, but again this feels insufficiently explored, and perhaps not extreme enough to extract too much sympathy from the viewer.

Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor’s score adds emotional heft when needed, but it is in the soundtrack where the music really shines, with an impeccably curated selection of era appropriate hip-hop including seminal tunes from the likes of Wu Tang Clan, Nas, Gangstarr and the iconic 93’ Till Infinity from Souls of Mischief.

The period detail is equally on point throughout the movie (admittedly maybe less of a challenge with a film set only 15 years ago) with Stevie rocking a selection of t-shirts featuring the likes of Ren and Stimpy, Beavis and Butthead and Guile from Street Fighter II. He and his brother can only truly bond while playing Super Nintendo, and their mum tells Stevie he gets to pick the movie for ‘Blockbuster night’.

At times this attention to detail can feel a little like millennial fan service, but for the most part it comes across as a loving homage to an era from someone who was clearly Stevie’s age at the time. It is this ability of Hill to see the world so resolutely through our protagonists eyes which makes Mid 90s such an enjoyable and compelling experience, and ensures it earns its place in the great cannon of coming of age cinema.