Jonah Hill’s career has been 

nothing if not dynamic. In 
2007, he broke onto the scene 
with “Superbad,” a high-school 
screwball comedy that’s still 
mentioned as the gold-standard 
for the genre post-2000. Hill’s 
performance as the boisterous, 
awkward and overweight Seth 
would prove both a blessing 
and a curse, launching him to 
stardom but pigeonholing him 
as “The Fat Guy” in Hollywood.

“I became famous in my late 

teens and then spent most of 

my young adult life listening 
to people say that I was fat 
and gross and unattractive,” 
Hill writes in an A24 program 
given to audiences at “Mid90s” 
early screenings. “It’s only in 
the last four years, writing and 
directing my movie “Mid90s,” 
that I’ve started to understand 
how much that hurt and got into 
my head.” 

Clearly, 
“Mid90s” 
was 
a 

watershed moment for Hill, 
a creative expression of self-
discovery both as a child and 
again as a young adult artist. 
This is unequivocally the film’s 
greatest strength; from the 
opening credits to the final shot, 
it’s clear that Hill has poured 

his soul into this piece. The film 
tells the story of Stevie (Sunny 
Suljic, “The Killing of a Sacred 
Deer”), a 13-year-
old who finds an 
escape from his 
turbulent 
home 

life with a group 
of 
high 
school 

skateboarders. 
As the guys grow closer, each 
reveals the unique struggles 
and triumphs of their day-to-
day lives.

While it certainly has some 

engaging character moments, 
“Mid90s” 
works 
best 
as 
a 

film that’s less about any one 
character 
and 
more 
about 

telling the story of an era and 

a niche culture within it. Hill, 
both a hip hop and skating 
fanatic, brings awe-inspiring 

meticulousness 
to the world he 
depicts, 
evoking 

details too small, 
too 
personal 
to 

be anything but 
autobiographical. 

Nevertheless, these moments 
never fall short of relatability, 
and it’s that ability to relate the 
trials and tribulations of a small 
community to the collective 
childhoods 
of 
a 
national 

audience. I’ve never owned a 
skateboard, and I was born in 
the tail end of the ’90s, and yet 
Stevie’s life — his rituals, his 

‘Mid90s’ charms despite hiccups

MAX MICHALSKY

Daily Arts Writer

FILM REVIEW

A24

“Mid90s”

A24

State Theatre

ARTIST PROFILE

enthusiasm, his wide-eyed awe 
at his role models — felt at once 
uncanny and familiar.

This 
ability 
to 
transport 

the viewer is Hill’s crowning 
achievement, and the film is at 
its best when it focuses more 
on this labor-of-love nostalgia 
and less on dramatic tension. 
Unfortunately, the story that 
accompanies this is filled with 
ups and downs. By the film’s 
conclusion, the only character 
arc that feels as if it’s truly been 
completed is the subplot about 
Stevie and his abusive older 
brother Ian (Lucas Hedges, 
“Three 
Billboards 
Outside 

Ebbing, 
Missouri”). 
Na-Kel 

Smith brings some heart to the 
film as Ray, a seemingly aloof 
but kind-hearted cool guy, and 
offers a handful of poignant 
moments as the group’s resident 
philosopher-type. In the end, 
though, the film bites off more 
than it can chew in its scant 
84-minute 
runtime 
and 
at 

least half of its many subplots 
stumble to conclusions that feel 
more like a shrug. 

And we need to talk about 

that scene. If you’ve seen the 
film, you probably know the 
one I’m referring to, but if 
not, be warned: Slight spoilers 
ahead. There’s a sequence about 
halfway through the movie 
where the guys bring Stevie to 
a party. On the bus ride there, 
some of the guys pop adderall 
and Stevie, wanting to fit in, 
does the same. At the party, 
Stevie drinks an entire bottle 
of malt liquor and smokes 
weed with his friends. Now a 
veritable cocktail of substances, 
he’s approached by Estee (Alexa 
Demie, “Brigsby Bear”), a high 
school girl who’s presumably 17 
like the rest of the crew. Their 
conversation turns to flirting 

which turns to Estee leading 
Stevie to a bedroom, and, well, 
let’s just say it doesn’t stop 
there. 

Let’s not mince words — this 

is predatory. Estee is only four 
years older than Stevie, but 
make no mistake: She’s a grown 
woman, and his voice hasn’t 
dropped yet. If that weren’t 
bad enough, he’s so drugged up 
that he can’t possibly consent to 
what is happening. So why does 
the film portray this hookup as 
a victory and then never address 
it again? There’s really no good 
answer, and were gender-roles 
reversed here (an older, sober 
guy hooking up with a wasted 
prepubescent girl) this scene 
would be sparking outrage. It’s 
not inherently wrong to portray 
these types of encounters in 
cinema, but to do so with such a 
brazen “high-five bro!” attitude 
is a head-scratching lapse of 
judgement from a filmmaker 
who 
has 
otherwise 
proven 

himself to be incredibly savvy 
and 
in-touch. 
Unfortunately, 

these thoughts lingered with me 
for the remainder of the film’s 
runtime. 

While far from perfect and, 

at brief moments, concerningly 
ignorant 
in 
its 
messaging, 

“Mid90s” should serve as a 
decent addition to the ever-
growing A24 “coming of age” 
lineup. What it does well it 
does really well, and what it 
does poorly, well, you know. 
Nevertheless, the experience 
remains a net-positive, and 
if nothing else serves as a 
promising beginning for Hill’s 
directing career. Much like the 
era it portrays, “Mid90s” has 
some good times and some not-
so-good times, but ultimately 
carries enough charm and heart 
to be worth it in the end.

A24

The cast of ‘Mid90s’ on 
making it as hooligans

This 
past 
Thursday 

afternoon I had the chance to 
call into a college conference 
call with Sunny Suljic, Olan 
Prenatt, Ryder Mclaughlin and 
Gio Galacia, four of the five 
members of the cast of Jonah 
Hill and A24 Entertainment’s 
latest hit movie “Mid90s.”

Although this was the first 

big screen appearance for all 
except Suljic, the group has 
actually been in the limelight 
for a number of years now, at 
least in Los Angeles, for their 
popular skating, clothing and 
cinema collective called Illegal 
Civilization 
(Illegal 
Civ). 

Friends and collaborators with 
big-name musicians like Tyler, 
The Creator, Frank Ocean and 
Vince Staples, the group has 
made several tours around 
the globe as a result of their 
endeavors.

Unaware of all of this going 

into the movie, however, I 
went into State Theatre’s free 
early screening of the film 
last Wednesday fairly free of 
expectation, other than that 
the name “Mid90s” sounded 
to me like another “Dazed and 
Confused” or “Kids.”

Walking in a few minutes 

late, I entered to a would-you-
rather conversation onscreen 
about having sex with your 
mom or your dad. The group of 
five friends were sitting on the 
couches of the skate shop, the 
workplace-turned-home for the 
crew. While you’d expect to be 
annoyed by this conversation, 

it immediately gives us insight 
into the sarcastic, carefree and 
light-hearted nature of the 
group.

Though their characters use 

certain homophobic and racist 
slurs that went unchecked two 
decades earlier, this kind of 
unbridled dialogue made the 
characters so believable that 
they retained their likeability. 
I wondered to myself later 
that night while discovering 
a treasure trove of Illegal Civ 
videos whether Jonah Hill had 
indeed written everything that 
ended up being said or whether 
he had let the group do what 
they had been doing for years 
prior in their YouTube film 
shorts.

Thus, 
given 
the 
chance 

the following day, I asked 
them what the their working 
dynamic with Jonah was to 
get the dialogue right. Sunny 
answered that they wanted to 
make sure to get all the slurs 
right, and they would often 
work for an hour before each 
scene talking this over. This 
wasn’t really what I was looking 
for, however, so I interjected — 
“I just … would you guys follow 
his 
writing 
specifically?” 

To this Sunny expeditiously 
responded that he had indeed 
read the script, and that none 
of it was improvised. Before 
he could finish, Ryder chimed 
in that all of the language 
was put in there for a reason, 
but before Ryder could finish 
Sunny 
interrupted 
saying: 

“shut the fu— yo, yo, no. I’m 
sorry. Continue.” From here, 
all cohesion in the conversation 
was lost. Ryder replied: “What 

the hell?” as all four members of 
the cast laughed. When the A24 
representative 
tried 
moving 

on, Sunny shouted, “Oh shit! I 
really just fucked up Ryder’s 
response, I’m sorry.” From 
here, Gio and Olan randomly 
quoted the movie, and before 
I knew it the conversation had 
descended into the same kind 
of headassery as many others 
had in the movie.

This 
hooliganism 
is 
just 

the byproduct of the cast’s 
closeness both on and off the 
set. In the movie, skating turns 
a group of kids from different 
walks of life into a family. Much 
the same is true for Illegal 
Civ. Their videos on YouTube 
promote 
self-expression, 

creativity and diversity through 
the common calling of skating. 
The linked video is the buildup 
to selling out a show of 500 at 
the Roxy Theater in LA back in 
early 2017. From the start, the 
collective’s positive creative 
energy is contagious. The show, 
for which they managed to get 
Compton’s Earl Swavey and 
Van Nuys’s Slow Hollows, is 
a celebration of rap, trap and 
rock and demonstrates how 
the common bond of music can 
get otherwise discrete cultural 
groups dancing together like 
there’s no tomorrow.

If “Mid90s” feels like a shout 

for the return of ’90s skatepark 
culture — a time in which 
cultural barriers were broken 
down for the sake of a common 
love — Illegal Civilization is 
answering that call. Jonah Hill 
has his cast to thank for making 
his musings a reality both on 
and off the big screen.

BEN VASSAR
Daily Arts Writer

‘Mid90s’ soundtrack isn’t 
just a period piece copout

Movie 
soundtracks 
are 

delicate things. A soundtrack 
can make a powerful sequence or 
ruin one. It can enhance a line of 
dialogue or overpower it. It can 
flow easily or echo distractingly 
out-of-place. 
Soundtracks, 

depending on the degree of care 
a filmmaker takes to refine them, 
can make or break a movie. And 
for “Mid90s,” the soundtrack 
is endearing and meticulously 
composed.

Jonah 
Hill’s 
(“Maniac”) 

directorial debut may seem like 
just a period piece centered 
around skateboarding culture, 
but as the soundtrack reveals, it 
is rather a heartfelt coming-of-
age story that says as much about 
its period setting as it does about 
Hill himself. 

If you’re looking for a Best 

Hits of the Decade Compilation, 
look elsewhere. The truth is that 
the soundtrack of “Mid90s” is 
anything but cookie-cutter. It 
intentionally strays from the 
mawkishly overplayed singles 
from the era and instead aims for 
a far more personal connection 
that feels both unique and 
universal.

The tracklist darts effortlessly 

between 
genres, 
traversing 

Golden Age hip hop, grunge, 
hardcore 
punk 
and 
— 
you 

guessed it — Hungarian folk 
rock.

In 
particular, 
“Wave 
of 

Mutilation” 
by 
the 
Pixies 

combines quirky chord changes 
with ragged, angry vocals, a 
perfect metaphor for the story’s 
raging adolescence. 

These are clearly songs that 

Hill grew up with and remains 
close to after years. He elaborated 
on his thought process for 
curating the soundtrack on the 
“The Big Picture,” a podcast by 
The Ringer. 

“A large part of wanting to 

be a filmmaker for me is having 
music be presented the way that 
I associate it,” he said. Indeed, 
the track choices, despite not 
being the most famous of the era, 
evoke a specificity in experiences 
and memories. 

Perhaps the most endearing 

detail was the reason for which 
Hill chose the Nirvana song, 
“Where Did You Sleep Last 
Night” to be on the soundtrack.

“This (song) has this deep 

emotional connection to me 
because it was the first song I 
learned on guitar,” he admitted. 
The link one forms to a piece of 
music strengthens substantially 
when learning how to play it, 
and the anecdote is a perfect 
metaphor 
for 
the 
kind 
of 

individualistic 
attention 
Hill 

poured into developing the film’s 
auditory texture.

Another standout from the 

soundtrack is its final song, “We’ll 
Let You Know” by Morrissey, 
which ends the playlist with 
a grounded sense of maturity. 
Hill also includes songs from 
previous decades as the album 
goes on, such as “Watermelon 
Man” by the jazz pianist Herbie 

Hancock.

The soundtrack was released 

as a playlist on Spotify rather 
than an purchasable album, and 
the form points to why “Mid90s” 
is so much more than a period 
soundtrack. Hill does not want 
to merely drag listeners back to 
another decade in time; he wants 
to interact with us in a distinctly 
modern form.

The unsung star of the playlist, 

however, was not music from 
the ’90s at all. It was the film’s 
instrumental score, interwoven 
between era tracks, by none other 
than Trent Reznor and Atticus 
Ross (“The Social Network”). 

The score periodically offers 

a break between the intense 
period 
grooves 
and 
forces 

listeners to confront the innately 
human side of the story that 
Hill 
expresses. 
Sure, 
Hill’s 

unmistakably 
personal 
track 

choices shape the experience, 
but Reznor and Ross elevate 
these nuances into mellifluous, 
thrumming climaxes that imbue 
the soundtrack with a sense of 
momentum.

As Hill ingeniously intends, 

a listener can walk away from 
the playlist with a view into 
someone’s life in the mid-90s, 
not a bland aggregate of timely 
music.

“To me, the title ‘Mid90s’ was 

a joke,” he said, “because people 
would expect it to be like that 
’90s movie and then they get 
this kind of small emotional, 
hopefully moving film.” 

The soundtrack, at least, is 

undoubtedly all of these things.

ANISH TAMHANEY

For the Daily

FILM NOTEBOOK

A24

 Friday, November 2, 2018 — 6A
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

