Jonah Hill’s Mid90s is...a Good Start

Actor/screenwriter/producer Jonah Hill may be prolific within the film industry, but Mid90s (2018) marks his directorial debut and remains his only undertaking in this field to date. Moving away from his predominantly comedic image, the Harmony Korine-reminiscent drama certainly shows promise for Hill as a director, but should by no means be considered at the level of a magnum opus.

Following the young Stevie (Sunny Suljic) as he falls in with a group of older skateboarding teens in mid-1990s Los Angeles, the film can be categorized as a coming-of-age period drama; its main themes are Stevie navigating the hierarchy of the group, rebelling against his mother for the first time, having his first experiences with girls, and dealing with the tumults of his relationship with his brother, Ian (Lucas Hedges). Hill chooses to approach these challenges through a deliberately dark and brutal lens; Stevie and Ian don’t just argue, they have violent fights on screen, and the kids in the skating group are revealed to have extremely troubled home lives. The film has some funny and lighthearted moments, sure, but its overall tone is unequivocally angsty. 

Hill certainly relies on this heavy tone to carry much of the minimalistic script (also credited to him), but he does not do so entirely without artistry--the aesthetic of Mid90s is objectively a cohesive and pleasing one, with a soundtrack of handpicked musical gems from the 1990s, period-adhering sets and props, and many shots standing out as having a carefully constructed mise-en-scene. With many new names, the acting holds up as well, and it is especially rewarding to see Lucas Hedges in a more antagonistic role than what he’s been cast in as of late.

However, as mentioned by some other critics, the film somewhat gives the impression of trying to convince its audience that it has more meaning than what it can truly be credited with. Its ending leaves much of the plot unresolved, and while film endings that tie up the entire plot can be rather artless, one still has to wonder: did this movie have a point? Beyond serving as a nostalgia trip for viewers who came of age in the 90s and having some relatable moments, that remains rather unclear. If Hill’s aim was to capture a specific experience at a point in time, or to take an unflinching look at some of the realities of adolescence, he did achieve this in a sense, but neither of these potential aims is one that films like Korine’s Kids (1995) or Catherine Hardwicke’s Thirteen (2003) haven’t fulfilled before. Arguably, the point of Mid90s could be that it doesn’t have a point--it’s just life, we’re meant to think. I would object to this by saying that it is a quite overwritten version of “life.” 

Mid90s is a good movie for a certain type of viewer. I would recommend it to those who enjoy aesthetics for their own sake and are okay with engaging with less structured plots. There is merit in the clear attention given to the film’s aesthetic and Hill’s ability to create emotionally moving moments from sparse dialogue. Still, if Hill wants to continue directing, he will need to evolve rather than stagnate in order to hold Hollywood’s attention.