The reason I wanted to check this film out was because of Jonah Hill. It's interesting to see actors give a shot at directing, writing or even both and for a first feature, Hill doesn't disappoint.
Mid90s follows Stevie, a young kid with a troubled family life, and finds a group of friends at a skate shop during the... mid 90s obviously.
If there is one thing that's executed extremely well, then it's the authentic feeling of the 90s when you watch it. The film has 4:3 aspect ratio and revolves around skateboarding, teenagers, drugs and many more aspects which attribute to the 90s feeling. This film is clearly very personal to Jonah Hill because of how realistic it looks. I really liked the music choices since it amplified the 90s atmosphere even more. It's blatantly targeted towards people from that time period and I'm sure that group of people will find this movie extremely nostalgic. Hill's script is very enjoyable and quite humourous at times. The characters were really fun to watch and what made them believable were the performances by the actors.
Sunny Suljic did an incredible job especially as a child performer. He had a lot of range in his acting and played the role to the best of his ability. Na-kel Smith, Olan Prenatt, Gio Galicia and Ryder McLaughlin all gave terrific performances especially considering that fact that all of them haven't acted much before this. Even Lucas Hedges did well as I thought he suited the role.
Whilst watching the movie, it reminded me a lot of Larry Clark's KIDS and I'm sure that film was a huge inspiration to Jonah Hill but it kind of made Mid90s lose some of its originality. Also towards the end, the editing became messy. There was a scene that included somewhat of a jumpscare that I didn't like at all.
Mid90s is nowhere near flawless but I respect the amount of work Jonah Hill put into his directorial debut. It's a fun, nostalgic and personal trip coming from someone who's lived through that time and wants to share his love for that period to everyone.
