Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #256: Mid90s (2018).

 

As the title suggests, the year is 1996. 12-year-old Stevie (Sunny Suljic) lives in Palms, LA with his mother Dabney (Katherine Waterston) and his abusive elder brother Ian (Lucas Hedges). One day when he cycles past a skateboard shop he's never seen before, Stevie's immediately enamoured with skating and so wants to give it a try. After trading with Ian for a board, Stevie returns to the shop where local teen skater Ray (Na-Kel Smith) befriends him and lets him join a group consisting of other tearaway young skaters including one named Fuckshit (Olan Prenatt), which says it all. Naturally it isn't long until Sunny begins having second thoughts about this crowd when their fun times turn increasingly dangerous.

This debut for Jonah Hill as writer-director, based presumably on his own adolescence, is nothing game-changing at all (although it mightn't have needed to be anyway), but it's an honest, compassionate and natural recreation of its era and of growing up. Hill wisely goes easy on the nostalgic touches (there's not actually that much of a period soundtrack or many overt cultural references for a start) and instead focuses more as the movie progresses on the ramifications these characters' reckless choices have for them. But that element of it isn't treated didactically or judgmentally either, which would've been hypocritical of somebody like Hill given many of the movies he's starred in. Instead he simply tells this tale like an updated and more mature version of Stand by Me: these boys drink and smoke drugs alongside their activities on the roads. Hill also uses Stevie as not just his avatar but also a vessel through which to explain why he and his friends make those choices: they're all trying to flee something. Newcomer Suljic makes for an expressive and relatable hero, carrying his amount of the film confidently, and his co-stars all hold their own alongside him. There's also beautifully focused photography by Christopher Blauvelt and unshowy editing from Nick Houy. There are more great directorial efforts on the way from Hill if Mid90s is any indication.