Before reading this review on Jonah Hill’s (True Story, War Dogs) directorial debut effort Mid90s, I ask that you watch this quick 90-second video that someone compiled about him and put on YouTube. It is heartbreaking and hopefully will change your impression of this living legend of an actor. Perceived for many years as being Hollywood’s next fat man, perhaps in the same mold as the gone-too-early Jim Belushi, John Candy, Chris Farley, Hill broke into Hollywood with roles in iconic comedies like Superbad, Funny People, Get Him to the Greek, Cyrus, This Is the End, 21 Jump Street, 22 Jump Street, Hail, Caesar, Knocked Up; movies that in one way or another accentuated his overweight character. And if you, like me, laughed at the jokes aimed at his weight in any of these movies and are feeling guilty after watching this clip, first of all, relax; you were supposed to. Secondly, reevaluate. It doesn’t take a genius to see that Hill has battled his weight throughout his career (he has numerous roles interspersed in his career in which he is thin).

With this video, it is evident that this is an insecure man trying to roll with comments that he is insecure with when he can and to challenge them in a super-friendly way when it is too difficult to let them wash off his shoulders. But for all those who say Hill is just a Hollywood funny man who capitalizes on jokes about his weight, let’s look at this stat for a second. Hill has as many Academy Award nominations (as an actor) as Bruce Willis, Robert Redford, Jim Carey, Ewan McGregor, Jim Carrey, Hugh Grant, Richard Gere, Jeff Daniels, Kevin Costner, Guy Pearce, John Goodman, and Jeff Goldblum, Ben Stiller, Channing Tatum, Owen Wilson, and Vince Vaughn combined. Costner (Dances With Wolves) and Redford (The Sting) have one. Hill with Moneyball and The Wolf of Wall Street already has two. Not only that, he should earn his third this year for Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot. And now he’s directing a very good movie through such a unique lens.

I don’t particularly appreciate using curse words in my reviews, but this one will be tough. One of the lead characters has the nickname of Fuckshit because anytime he sees anything extraordinary, he says, “Fuck. Shit. That was dope.” Fuckshit is a significant character in Mid90’s, but he isn’t THE main character. That belongs to newcomer Sunny Suljic (The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The House with a Clock in Its Walls), a middle-school student with the nickname Sunburn who looks even younger than his 13 years of age, lives in his small Los Angeles city home with his abusive older brother Ian (Lucas Hedges – Manchester by the Sea, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) and his emotionally absent mother Dabney (Katherine Waterson – Logan Lucky, Alien: Covenant). It must be the summertime since we never see Sunburn, Ian, or other school-aged characters. Sunburn, whose real name is Stevie, is looking for an identity. His daily beatings at the hands of his much stronger brother seem unprovoked.

Hedges is the only established actor in this film, and his role is relatively minor. He serves as a foil to make Sunburn even more likable. Ian is an angry high school junior or senior. He wants to appear much tougher than he is, so he picks on his smaller brother. And Dabney is oblivious to it all. Ian’s rage may be directed towards the men he was exposed to early in his life. There is no father figure. It isn’t stated, but it is assumed that Stevie and Ian have different fathers and that Dabney had many men he did not like in and out of the home when Ian was younger. Perhaps he was beaten by them, and this is why he picked on his brother. Hill could have given us a bit more of a glimpse at the origins of his anger, but at the same time, it would have taken away from the other stories he wanted to tell. And Hill was on a mission to make each minute in his film count. The 90-minute run time was perfect.

Stevie witnesses some older students giving a store owner a hard time one day. The merchant is trying to have them flee from loitering around his store, saying things like, “I’m not afraid of you. I was in Desert Storm.” But the foursome harassing the store owner is more bark than bite. They aren’t out to hurt anyone or steal from anyone. They only want to fool around with him and let him and others know, “Hey, we’re at the age where it’s our time to shine.” What unites the older high school students is their love of skateboarding. Ray (Na-kel Smith), an African American boy who has short dreadlocks that look like Wiz Khalifa or NFLers Tyreek Hill or Ty Hilton, is the leader of the diverse group. As the leader, he doesn’t have a nickname. The two other older boys are Fuckshit, known for his beautiful long curled hair that he inherited from his African American mother (he is of mixed race), and Fourth Grade, a white kid with a love of filming his friends skate and get his name because he’s not as bright as the others in the group. The final member of the four and the one closest in age to Stevie is Ruben, probably a 9th or 10th-grader who lacks confidence and, possibly, even a home. He and Stevie form an instant relationship, with Ruben exposing cigarettes to his new friend for the first time.

Ruben is also known for giving bad advice, telling his new pal not to say “thank you” about anything because “saying thanks is gay.” Hmmm. Ruben’s insecurity is tested even more when Sunburn is acclimated to the group so quickly. Everyone likes him, including Ruben. But Ruben is just a little more than jealous of Stevie’s attention from Ray, Fuckshit, and Fourth Grade. They instantly like him because of his toughness, genuineness, and sense of humor. The five boys hang out in a skate shop where Ray works part-time (note: there is an intentional lack of presence of adult figures in this movie by Hill; we know that Ray doesn’t own the skate shop, but we never actually see anyone tending to customers other than Ray). The boys loiter in the workshop when Ray works and skate during other times.

Hill performed mastery with his character development for a movie with such a short runtime and six main characters to showcase. The depression and rage experienced by Ian is a perfect foil for the other five boys. At times, I wondered if we even needed Ian’s character. And you know what? It might not have been. But Hill made his lead in Stevie as complete of a character as possible, and for him, that included showing his abusive home life. It further indicates the lost, identity-deprived kid at the film’s beginning and his journey to be something more. I was curious to know the timeline of the film. Again, I assume it was the summer break in Los Angeles. However, it would also be hot in Los Angeles in the middle of summer, and the boys were in jeans the whole time.

Skaters in the mid-90s wore pants much more frequently than shorts. Do I know this because I was a skater? Hardly. My extent of skating was buying a board for $5 and using it like a surfer waiting for that right wave as I found all the downhills in my neighborhood. I still don’t know how I wasn’t run over by a car. Stevie isn’t much better of a skater than me. And his relationship with Ian wasn’t always terse. Early in the film, he buys his brother a CD after going into his bedroom one day and going through his collection to ensure he doesn’t get one he already has. He later trades a handful of video games for a skateboard to learn to skate with his new friends. But the board is pretty lame. It shows an alligator wearing sunglasses (even my skateboard was cooler). So Ruben tells him he’ll sell his current board for $40 (Ruben has his sites on an even better board). Stevie agrees because he realizes his board is lame. So, Ian conjures a plan with him, saying that Stevie will steal $80 from his mother’s dresser and give Ian $40 since Ian told him where the money is.

In any case, Stevie has a skateboard, and you’d think that he did a triple-axle on a half-pipe after completing his first bunny hop. The quintet skates mainly to pass the time. It’s their hobby. It’s the same as me playing pickup basketball or youth soccer at the same age during the same period. Ray has dreams of going pro. He’s the one with real skill, but what did “going pro” in skateboarding mean to them, or what does it mean now? Tony Hawk is the one name in pro skating, and he is 50! However, Ray is much better than the others in the group, which is probably the main reason he is the group leader, though his skills at talking to each of the others one-on-one have something to do with it. Ray’s best friend is Fuckshit, but a significant difference slowly emerges between the two. Again, Hill is phenomenal in his story-building and character development. The two both know how to goof around. They both know how to teeter the line when screwing around with people but not going over it. But Fuckshit is far more into drinking than Ray is. And when Fuckshit shares the pills he was prescribed for his Ritalin with the others before a party they are all attending, Ray takes a pill from him and then throws it at his face.

The differences between the two best friends start to emerge late, the substance abuse and lack of seriousness by Fuckshit driving the wedge between them. Stevie likes them both equally, but Ray takes him under his wing and proves to be a role model for him. As the relationship builds between Ray and Stevie, it just as quickly deteriorates between Stevie and Ruben. Ruben might be the most complex character in the film, yet the one who gets the least amount of dialog. Ruben is young, insecure, and petrified of coming across as uncool. His attempts to mentor Stevie backfire, making him even more uncertain about his role in the group and his place in the world. There is one scene where Ruben is dropped off at home, but as soon as the other four leave in Fuckshit’s car, we see him dart and go in a different direction. It’s unseen by everyone, but Stevie never revisited it, and it offered even more intrigue to Ruben.

There is a natural coming-of-age component of the movie when Stevie attends his first party with his new friends. It’s the only scene in the film that offers a female (other than Dabney), and it goes down the path that you would expect with some young males under the influence of drugs and alcohol. It’s almost a scene that you had to have, and Hill shows just enough restraint in showing and then talking about the experience and letting boys be boys and how they would speak to each other about their experiences with girls. This movie is Rated R for a reason, and even though all of its characters are under 18, it really shouldn’t be seen by anyone under 18. Hill’s audience for Mid90s is teenagers in the Mid90s (which includes Hill, and that also includes me). It’s a trip down memory lane in many ways, though I can clearly see how growing up in a Virginia suburb differs from growing up in Los Angeles.

Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB both list this movie as a comedy. While there are moments designed to make you giggle, this is a relatively heavy coming-of-age drama. You will be disappointed to think you are going into the same type of Hill comedy with him behind the camera rather than in front of it. You just are. It is far richer and hits you right on the head when you are least expecting it. The transition was the only component that Hill could have improved upon in his rookie effort. Though a drama, we went from characters joking around for more than 75% of the movie to a sharp change in the tone of some personalities (notably Ray, Fuckshit, and Ruben). There wasn’t much notice for this, and it was almost like we hit the point where Hill flipped the on/off switch. The ending of the movie, though a bit unpredictable, races to the end, and the conclusions you might draw from it don’t exactly make sense, especially when it comes down to a choice made by Ray and a choice made by Dabney in the film’s final ten minutes. This is not your traditional movie by any means, and if you are thinking about seeing it in the theater and you are nearing it down to Bohemian Rhapsody, First Man, or A Star is Born, know what you are getting into. These other three movies are huge blockbusters with big-time casts. Heck, Mid90s was filmed and presented using a 4:3 aspect ratio, which is entirely unheard of with today’s movies. And you will notice it at first. And you will question it. But it also is what was needed to make Mid90s even more realistic.

Plot 7.5/10
Character Development 8/10
Character Chemistry 9/10
Acting 9/10
Screenplay 8/10
Directing  9/10
Cinematography 10/10
Sound 8.5/10
Hook and Reel 8/10
Universal Relevance 8/10
85%

B-