Tuesday 21 July 2020

Mid90s (2018 Jonah Hill & scr)

Jonah's done a good job with his debut, eliciting good performances out of a young cast, particularly Sunny Suljic in the lead (it's a monocular film, I think), shooting in 4x3, using an eclectic soundtrack - you wonder how autobiographical it might be. The car crash is really well done. Credits too to Katherine Waterston as one of the professionals, who likes taking unusual roles, and Na-Kel Smith as the sensible youth.

You can't help of thinking of Les Quatres Cents Coups when watching a film like this, and I was getting flashes of Larry Clark's Kids and even Almost Famous - not that I'm saying this is derivative - no, it's an original.

Now let's find out what's going on.

OK. Well, Hill was upper-middle class to start with, but did hang out with skate-boarders, loved hip-hop, and always wanted to be a film-maker - when young, he used to write Simpsons scripts (for fun). (His younger sister is Beanie Feldstein, from Lady Bird and Booksmart.)

Lucas Hedges (the probably gay brother) was in Manchester by the Sea, Three Billboards and Lady Bird, Suljic has several credits, but it's Na-Kel Smith's debut, and that of Olan Prenatt ('Fuckshit') and Gio Galicia (Ruben); not quite that of Ryder McLaughlin ('Fourth Grade').

Antoine Doinel, 90s style
Photographed by Christopher Blauvelt, edited by Nick Houy.

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