This year’s Glasgow Film Festival opened with a carefully curated rite of passage film, an ode to teenage life and friendship. Mid90s is Jonah Hill’s directing debut with stunning performances and a strong sense of honesty.
Los Angeles, America. 1990s. Skates, CD players, magazines, parties. A 13 year-old Steve (Sunny Suljic) lives with his single mother Dabney (Katherine Waterston), and his abusive older brother Ian (Lucas Hedges). Steve is almost a teenager; small and quiet, with curious blue eyes and an honest, bright smile. Despite Ian’s extremely violent behaviour, Steve initially worships him. Dabney is lost and helpless. Full of sorrow and insecurity, she has no control over her children’s behaviour. Young Steve seems in desperate need of someone to connect with and somewhere to belong, but the only thing he gets back is violence from his brother and an overwhelmed mother. Ordinarily violent days in the household take a spicy turn when Steve enters a local skateboard shop and meets a group of four skaters who quickly embrace him as one of their own. With many of the group’s conversations referencing race, racism and belonging, Hill wonderfully comments on the simplicity of a child’s attitude as Steve in one scene is shown naively asking “What are black people?”.
One of my favourite moments was Steve’s big fall through an open roof after attempting to take a risky jump with his skateboard, which marks a strong transition for the 13 years-old and his relationship to the group. When Steve comes back to life from being unconscious on a picnic table after the fall, the group express their admiration of his courage. He is now part of their family. Illegal skating gatherings and parties involving alcohol, smoking, drugs and women become more frequent and the sense of unease and danger begin to escalate. With a particularly strong performance by Na-kel Smith, as Ray, the leader and a mature counterpoint of the skate group, there is an underlying tension between rationality and the irrationality of a teenage boy who is being pulled by temptations and ideas of what it means to be ‘cool’. Ray, in contrast to the rest of the members, stays clean, never smokes or drinks and has a genuine passion for skating which, as he says, is the profession he wants to follow. He slowly takes the role of a mentor towards Steve, but he is unable to control the rest of the group who gradually become more volatile.
Inspired by Hill’s experience of growing up skateboarding in the mid-’90s in L.A., Mid90s is brutally real and hopeful, an authentic reference to the American sub-culture of that era. Hill’s choices transmit a sense of clarity and extreme complexity, revealing connections between politics of the 1990s and politics of now. In an interview with Vogue, when asked how he made choices about the film, Hill said that “he wrestled for them”, justifying the detail of the dialogue, the amount of successful political references, the music choices and the strong dramaturgy. Most scenes included the layering of multiple elements, combining senses of ease and beauty with those of danger. An example is a scene of the five skaters rolling down a busy, two-way motorway, amongst cars in a deep red coloured sunset. A large percentage of the group’s conversations revolve around equality, racism, homophobia and friendship. The group’s words made me wonder what it means to be in this world right now, to be a teenager and a human? What is it to have needs, passions, dreams, friendships, parents, challenges, temptations and how difficult is it for us to find the balance between ourselves and what is expected from us?
The dialogue includes strong language, which might be confronting to some viewers, I, however, found it another honest detail of youth culture. Hill was also the music supervisor with the musical landscape including songs from Morrissey, Nirvana and Cypress Hill, which he managed to include with a limited music budget.
Leaving me full of reflections on the importance of friendships and the ways these can shape and direct our lives, it is the perfect opening to this year’s film festival which is focusing on the themes of “people trying to find their way in the world, trying to figure out where they belong, trying to find a sense of family, safety, community” as director Allan Hunter said at the opening Gala.
Glasgow Film Festival 2019 features a selection of films referencing the 90s and you can find details for screenings, times and tickets on the online programme on https://glasgowfilm.org/glasgow-film-festival/whats-on/all.
Reviewer - Zoe Katsilerou
on - 20/2/19
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