Mid90s Review

Mid90s is a unique and fun film despite its lack of story. This movie is about a 13-year-old boy named Stevie. As he searches for where he belongs, he finds a home at a local skate shop. Sunny Suljic gives a fantastic performance. You care about his character immediately and he carries you through the weaker moments. Na-Kel Smith gives a great performance. While his character appears one dimensional at first, his development grows as the story progresses. Katherine Waterson and Lucas Hedges give okay performances. However, their roles are so small they never stand out. All of the other skaters give a decent performance, but none of them are memorable. Jonah Hill did a good job with his directorial debut. He shoots the movie in 4:3 boxed ratio and while I never loved it, I was never distracted by it either. The script is good but overall pretty hollow. Outside of a couple emotional moments, it is just nonstop 90s references and skating lingo. Also worth noting, there were a couple of scenes in the third act that I found uncomfortable and unnecessary. At 84 minutes the pacing is good, but sometimes slows down too much. Overall, I had a good time with Mid90s even though it never rises above its surface level entertainment.

6/10