mid90s (2018)

Directed by Jonah Hill. Starring Sunny Suljic, Na-Kel Smith, Olan Prenatt, Lucas Hedges, Gio Galicia, Katherine Waterston, Ryder McLaughlin, Alexa Denise. [R]

Young Suljic seeks respite from his troubled home life by ingratiating himself into a pack of older skater kids. Coming-of-age drama doesn’t break ground so much as relive past snapshot glories (literally and figuratively); nostalgic, but it eschews rose-colored shades for tougher truths and uglier fall-outs. Hill, making his directorial debut (he also wrote the script), shows confidence, if not much originality, preferring to “attack” the material as a laidback but observant witness, echoing early Richard Linklater and Larry Clark’s Kids (that film’s writer, Harmony Korine, has a cameo). Much of the cast is comprised of non-professionals (and it shows), but they bring a rough-around-the-edges authenticity that couldn’t have been achieved by up-and-coming stars. Soundtrack captures notable tunes of the era (Pixies, Wu-Tang Clan, Nirvana, Morrissey, etc.), though it’s curious that the era’s so-called “skate punk” of Strung Out, NOFX, et al, was ignored.

70/100