Film / mid90s

mid90s is a 2018 coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by Jonah Hill in his directorial debut. The film stars Sunny Suljic, Lucas Hedges and Katherine Waterston.

Set during a 1996 Los Angeles summer, the film's story follows 13-year-old Stevie (Suljic), who escapes his turbulent home life, with his single mother (Waterston) and abusive older brother (Hedges), to spend time with a group of older skateboarders. This group introduces Stevie to a whole new world that changes him — for better and for worse.

The film originated as a spec script in early 2016, and eventually premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2018 before getting a public release around a month later through A24.

Hill strove for the film to be as accurate and authentic a portrayal of '90s skate culture as possible, which manifests in such ways as a 4:3 aspect ratio and 16mm cinematography, a soundtrack heavily populated with hip-hop popular at the time (as well as cuts from artists like The Pixies, The Smiths, and Herbie Hancock), and the social norms presented in the characters' words and actions.

The film additionally has an original score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross that has since been officially released as a 4-song EP.

This film provides examples of:

• The '90s: But you already knew that. (1996, to be exact.)
• Abusive Parents: Heavily implied to be the case for Ruben. He hangs out with the other boys all the time and seems to spend as much time away from his home as possible.
• all lowercase letters: How the film's title and opening credits are portrayed.
• Ambiguously Absent Parent: No mention is made of Stevie and Ian’s father (or fathers).
• Ambiguously Brown: Fuckshit is considerably lighter-skinned than Ray and has wavy blond hair (although whether it's natural or the result of dye/bleach is never revealed), but still identifies as black and uses the N-word. At one point, a security guard remarks that he looks Samoan.
• The Baby of the Bunch: Stevie becomes the youngest member of the skateboard group. Before that, Ruben was the youngest, and it's this dethroning that starts friction between them.
• Big Brother Bully: The very first scene shows Ian beating the shit out of Stevie, presumably for going into his room. He retains this role throughout the rest of the movie.
• Big Brother Mentor: Ray steps into this role for Stevie, seeing as it paying it forward from when Fuckshit did the same to him after his brother was killed.
• Black Comedy Rape: An early conversation among the group revolves around whether sex with one's father or mother is preferable, at which point Fuckshit states that he could not consciously have sex with either, and would likely have to rape one.
• Brick Joke: Early in the film, it's explained that Fuckshit's nickname stems from his go-to reaction to things being "Fuck, shit!" It doesn't recur until near the end when Fuckshit says it as he's seeing pictures of Stevie's broken arm.
• The Chew Toy: Stevie suffers a number of injuries throughout the film, like getting abused constantly by his older brother, falling from a roof, and getting into a near-fatal car accident. Ray even tells Stevie he takes hits better than anyone he’s ever known.
• Children Are Innocent: Stevie still appears to have some of this, despite having an abusive older sibling, and being exposed to drugs and alcohol, given how simply he answers a girl's questions about his romantic and sexual history, oblivious to what she really is asking about.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The result of Stevie's drunken fight with Ruben. He's the one to throw the first punch, and he holds the high ground of the scuffle until the two are pulled away.
• Dark and Troubled Past: As Ray reveals, everyone in the group has one. He had a younger brother that was struck and killed by a car while going to soccer practice, Fourth Grade is incredibly poor, and it's implied that Ruben has Abusive Parents.
• The Day the Music Lied: As Stevie is about to attempt a risky ollie over two high rooftops, the Hungarian rock band Omega's song "Gyöngyhajú lány" plays in the background. Besides the immediate juxtaposition of the song's epic, triumphant sound and Stevie's friends shouting that he's not going fast enough, the song immediately cuts out once Stevie slips and falls into the gap between the rooftops, knocking himself unconscious.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Very intentionally invoked. Hill has gone on record stating that in making the film, he prioritized actuality over comfort to make for a more realistic portrait of '90s culture.
  • There are multiple scenes of the characters casually using racist, misogynistic, and homophobic language — especially the lattermost — as was par for the course at the time.
    • In an interview with Slate, Hill admitted that he was afraid he would be accused of being bigoted because of the homophobic language throughout the film^note Hill himself had been embroiled in controversy over using homophobic language in the past and considered shooting a scene where the characters debate over it. He presented the idea of the scene to producer Scott Rudin (who is a gay man), who then asked, "Would you guys have had this conversation back then?" When Hill answered no, Rudin said that it would be "more offensive to put that in the movie than to show it how it actually was".
    • Many characters also have no problem with using the word "retard," a word that has gotten more controversial as of The New '10s due to many using it as a slur.
  • In some instances, the film doesn't even portray situations like Stevie hooking up with a considerably older girl at a party (let alone the fact he might be under the influence) or Fuckshit being allowed to drive a car while drunk and high in a negative light, relying on the change of the public consensus towards these things to sway the audience's opinion on the matters.
• Didn't Think This Through: At one point, the group finds an open section between two rooftops to ollie over. Stevie decides to try and jump it. Advancing towards the gap, with simultaneous music swelling and friends shouting that he doesn't have enough speed, Stevie jumps, slips and drops straight down, and gets knocked unconscious after hitting his head on a lunch table.
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: One of the film's bluntest displays of Deliberate Values Dissonance is in the sexual encounter that the 13-year-old Stevie has with a significantly older girl he meets at a party. The film doesn't explicitly portray the scene negatively — Stevie is even shown celebrating with his friends afterward — but relies on the feelings of the audience towards such an encounter occurring today to portray how disturbing it is. Moreover, Stevie could technically be considered under the influence given that he was drinking beer and smoking pot during the party, so the fact that Stevie could potentially have had sex with someone older than him while under the influence of drugs and alcohol would likely further horrify the audience over how innocently it is portrayed while knowing it is subtly sending a message that this is wrong.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Subverted with Fuckshit, who doesn't seem to mind being called this. The only person who seems to have a problem with his name is Dabney.
• Freudian Excuse: Ian's problems seem to generally stem from how his and Stevie's mother would bring in and have sex with multiple different men in his immediate vicinity, and it is also implied that Ian and Stevie were the products of their mother's promiscuous behavior, as she got pregnant with Ian when she was still a teenager.
• Gender-Blender Name: Stevie and Ian's mom is named Dabney, which is usually a masculine name.
• Genius Ditz: Fourth Grade. His nickname derives from him reportedly being as smart as a 4th grader, but he's mainly defined by a passion for film that leads to the reveal that he can put together a mean skate video.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Ian is an asshole, but he is eventually shown to actually care for Stevie, as he clearly looks worried when Stevie is recovering in the hospital.
• Jump Scare: Used twice in close succession. One is a fakeout. The other isn't. Near the end of the film, a drunk and high Fuckshit is driving the group. At one point, a loud car squeal sounds for a split second, but nothing happens. Eventually, Fourth Grade asks to pull over, at which point the squeal happens again (accompanied by a flash of white light), and the group's car crashes immediately after.
• Karma Houdini: Fuckshit somehow avoids any legal punishment for driving drunk and high and nearly killing Stevie.
• Logo Joke: The A24 logo is shown formed with skateboards, and is then partially dismantled by passerby skaters.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Fuckshit, to some extent. The "pretty boy" aspect is undermined by his being a comical Casanova Wannabe, but it does lead to girls having conversations about wanting his hair.
• Narration Echo: Fuckshit's nickname was based on "Fuck, shit" often being his go-to reaction for things. When we first learn this, it's through Ruben explaining his tendency to say "Fuck, shit, that was dope!" in response to a cool trick. The film then immediately cuts to Fuckshit doing just this.
• Nice Guy: Ray and Fourth Grade are the most affable of the skateboarders.
• No Ending: The film concludes with Stevie shown recovering in the hospital, appearing only subtly to be reconciled with both Ian and the group. Fourth Grade offers to play a video he edited from the ample footage he recorded of their times together. After the video is shown, the film abruptly ends, with no resolutions given for how their lives will continue after.
• Nothing Is Scarier: We only see what happens directly before and after Fuckshit gets the guys in a car crash; the actual event itself is symbolized by a couple seconds of complete black and silence.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Fuckshit and Fourth Grade are only ever referred to by those names.
• Parental Neglect: Stevie's mother really doesn't seem to be around when Ian gets violent, and doesn't seem to talk with Steve about his various issues (though she is appropriately horrified to learn he'd gotten drunk and high at a party), and this plays a major role in the plot of the film.
• Pet the Dog: Even though he constantly insults and beats Stevie, Ian is still his older brother, so he cares enough to visit him in the hospital and share an orange juice with him.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Stevie delivers a harsh one toward Ian after he finds him coming home late at night. Granted, most of Stevie's courage came on the heels of being considerably inebriated, but it still counts.
• Shout-Out: The trailer includes Omega's "Gyöngyhajú lány", famously sampled in Kanye West's "New Slaves", as background music. While the trailer uses the song in its original key, a scene in the film proper uses the song at the slightly lower pitch that it was at in Kanye's song, making it seem more like a direct reference.
• Silence Is Golden: Multiple sequences in the film eschew the in-scene audio for either music (like with Stevie's fight with Ruben) or complete silence (Stevie in the hospital after the crash).
• Smash Cut: Moments before the car crash, a shot of Fourth Grade anxiously asking to pull over cuts abruptly into a shot of his horrified face filled with white light.
• Smash to Black: Used twice during the car crash; once right before the car flips, and again after it's revealed that Stevie is unconscious.
• Stacy's Mom: When Dabney confronts Stevie's friends at the skate shop, Fuckshit asks her what her number is when she leaves.
• Title Drop: The film that Fourth Grade plays at the end is titled "Mid90s".
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: On top of the drinking, smoking, and drugs, Stevie is also shown engaging in self-harm at times, including scratching his leg repeatedly with a hairbrush and attempting to strangle himself with the cord of a Super Nintendo controller.
• Villainous Breakdown: One possible interpretation of Ian's childish tantrum after fighting a drunk Stevie is that for the first time, Stevie actually managed to fight back (which may be why Ian's clutching his eye).
• We Used to Be Friends: Downplayed with Stevie and Ruben. Although Ruben is established as Stevie's closest friend within the group, they grow apart over the course of the film, with the implication being that it stems from Ruben's jealousy over the attention Stevie gets as the youngest. The progression of their falling out culminates in a fight, but they make up promptly afterward.

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