Stuck in the ’90s

Novice director And young Cast BALANCE Bleakness, humour

MID90S

★★★ 1/2outof5

Cast: Sunny Suljic, Katherine Waterston, Lucas Hedges, Olan Prenatt, Na-kel Smith, Ryder Mclaughlin, Gio Galicia Director: Jonah Hill

Duration: 1 h 24 m

Jonah Hill’s debut behind the camera is confident, nonchalant and thoughtful. Mid90s vividly reimagines the cultural touchstones of its time and astutely acknowledges the growing pains of a male prepubescent who just wants to be “cool.”

Though the film doesn’t appear to be autobiographical, Hill is precisely the right-aged millennial to be making movies set in that halfway point between the fall of the Berlin Wall and Y2K. For many older millennials who were just beginning to understand the world around them in the mid-’90s, subcultures such as hip hop, grunge and skateboarding were trendy little identities we could try on for size, like a pair of baggy jeans always precariously on the verge of falling down.

That demographic will find a twinge of nostalgic identification with Stevie (Sunny Suljic), a quiet, observant, mop-haired middle-schooler with the kind of dire home environment that encourages escape plans. Stevie’s got a negligent mother (Katherine Waterston), a physically abusive older brother (Lucas Hedges) and zero father figures, so when he finds a hip older crew who hang out at a skateboard shop, the ragamuffin doesn’t foresee any negative consequences.

Some of these dudes think they’re too cool for real names. One nickname (that’s too obscene for a family friendly publication) is given to a biracial wisecracking goof (Olan Prenatt) with long blond curls. His best friend/straight man is Ray (Nakel Smith), who comes closest to being the leader of the crew. He’s the only one with serious ambitions to leave behind their poverty-stricken life. Fourth Grade (Ryder Mclaughlin), so dubbed for his low IQ, is meekly content to document the boys’ skateboarding tricks with a clunky camcorder.

These teens drive, smoke, drink and (allegedly) have sex. The riff-raff ’s riffing is reminiscent of the hilarious male-buddy ripostes from Hill-starring films made by Judd Apatow (Knocked Up and Superbad). But, dare I say, the comedy in Mid90s is better.

There’s one last crew member: the youngest of the bunch, Ruben (Gio Galicia), who Stevie first befriends, but as time goes on, becomes a detriment to his status within the group dynamic. Ruben’s insecurity doesn’t go well with the increasingly candid Stevie. Case in point: Ruben tells Stevie not to say “thank you” because “people will think you’re gay.” When Stevie runs this insightful life advice past one of the older teens — who laughs at anyone who would be stupid enough to not have good manners — the light dawns in Stevie’s eyes that not everything everyone says is worth believing.

Stevie’s negligent upbringing is sad but endearing. When his brother isn’t relentlessly pummelling him, Stevie sneaks into his bedroom to admire his sibling ’s meticulously cultivated shrine to hip hop and makes notes from the stacks of CDS and Source magazines for his own research later.

Though Hill has taken cues from classic child-poverty films — most notably Kids — Mid90s doesn’t have the same gravitas to paint a full picture of its impoverished setting. But Hill manages to find a balance between his movie’s severe subject matter and the humour that helps teens like Stevie survive their lonely, malnourished adolescence — hopefully all in one piece.