Mid90s

Didn't love it, didn't hate it, didn't believe a word of it!

Jonah Hill's directorial debut is a watered-down version of Larry Clarke's Kids and, presumably, an homage to skateboarding culture. Yes, there are heaps of drugs, buckets of alcohol and too many words beginning with 'N' and 'F' - it really does become more of a critique on toxic [youthful] masculinity than an homage to a vibrant counter-culture.

The constant homophobia is a pitiful reflection on how backward this portrait of that culture is!

If you can by-pass the chronic miscasting, the unnecessary [let's-do-it-for-authenticity] 4:3 aspect and strange song choices...Mid90s offers little more than a tissue of a story, delivered via episodic vignettes...they range from the plausible de-railing of a likeable kid to the totally implausible de-railing of this unlikeable kid. The seduction scene is nothing but absolute baloney. As for the mother, she 'cares' for one scene - shouting the odds - then, releasing her son back into the grips of extreme hedonism. A tiny, pre-pubescent body could not take this amount of abuse! 

In truth, if Jonah Hill had not been the [famed] director...this film would have appeared briefly and disappeared quickly...without trace.

Trailer...