October 19, 2018 3 min to read

Mid90s

Hill’s thoughtful, intimate love letter to mid-90s skate culture features a insightful deconstruction of toxic masculinity.

by Zach Saul

Jonah Hill’s directorial debut is a nostalgia-driven love letter to a morally complicated subculture - about a sprightly little kid named Stevie (Sunny Suljic) struggling to fit in, and eventually finding purpose through skating. Stevie has a well-intentioned, albeit clueless mother (Katherine Waterson), and a physically abusive older brother, so it makes sense he’d be looking elsewhere for comfort. Walking aimlessly through Los Angeles one day Steevie stumbles into a skate shop and befriends three aspiring pro skaters: Ray (Na-kel Smith), Fourth Grade (Ryder McLaughlin) and Fuckshit (Olan Prenatt) who work at the shop. Stevie quickly experiences freedom and lawlessness for the first time in his life and everything that accompanies newfound independence. His first beer, his first hookup, and his first wipeout are all accompanied by consequences and rewards in the hazy, mid 90s skating culture. Ray and Fuckshit consistently model behavior that would have previously been unfathomable to Steevie like yelling at a policeman, smoking constantly, and scaring off anyone who steps in your path.

Hill’s movie had been widely criticized by critics for “not having enough to say” or being “empty”. And perhaps in regards to skating culture, or on the underpinning’s of Fuckshit’s behavior, Mid90s could be commenting more. However, in my opinion Mid90s has a tremendous amount to say about masculinity. Particularly for a thirteen-year old boy coming of age in the 90s a deconstruction of what constitutes respect. In an interview with Bill Simmons, Hill says something interesting about how “hookups” and drugs mean something very different to a thirteen year old in the 90s than they would to teenager today or even a slightly older kid. Hill says for him (speaking about his childhood) that these experiences were a “currency” to get respect as opposed to joyous or pleasurable milestones by themselves.

There’s a hilarious, and heartbreaking scene in the movie when Ruben (Gio Galicia) shares a cigarette with Steevie and says “you should worship me. I smoke, I drink, I fuck bitches, you’re just a kid.” In this moment we get a tiny window into what the younger group members think about masculinity and acceptance. In a separate exchange Ruben tells Stevie not to say “thank you” all the time or people will think he’s gay. Ray later debunks this idea telling Stevie “saying thank you doesn’t make you gay, it’s just common manners”. I think for anyone that grew up in the 90s, these exchanges really struck a chord, because our ideas about what it meant to be respected were absolutely constructed with these toxic ideas.

The movies final act features a car accident born from Fuckshit’s drunk driving, and a reckoning of sorts for the crew, Stevie, and his Mom. When Stevie wakes up in the hospital bed and is surrounded by his skater friends, Ray looks over and says “You take the hardest hits of anyone I’ve ever seen. You know you don’t have to do that right?” I thought this particular exchange was really poignant because the gang’s de-facto leader is telling its youngest member he doesn’t have to strive towards phony benchmarks of toxic masculinity to be accepted.

The Good: The mood, and the details of Mid90s - Hill nails. The T-shirts, the posters, the soundtrack, and even the politically inappropriate language fits the moment in time he’s talking about perfectly. Hill said one of his goals was to explain that “A Tribe Called Quest meant to me, what The Beatles did to my parents.” While some are likely to thumb their nose as the nostalgia driven aspects of Mid90s I felt it’s intimacy, and appreciated the authenticity of the dialogue.

The Bad: Perhaps Mid90s owed us more in its final sequence, a reckoning for Fuckshit, or some sign that the group was changed by this setback in someway. It’s a clear instance of Hill trying not to tell the audience what to think and painting this subculture with a nuanced brush.