Mid90s
What stands out first about Mid90s is the confidence with which Jonah Hill establishes its comedy identity. Rather than relying on premise alone, Mid90s asks Sunny Suljic and Katherine Waterston to supply personality from the opening stretch. The premise of Mid90s is established with useful clarity: Follows Stevie, a thirteen year old in 1990s era Los Angeles who spends his summer navigating between his troubled home life and a group of new friends that he meets at a Motor Avenue skate shop. That direct approach lets Mid90s use its 1h 25m running time for character, atmosphere and consequence.
The craft of Mid90s is defined by performer rhythm, supported by performer rhythm rather than overwhelmed by decoration. A24 gives Mid90s a production framework in which comic timing built around character can remain connected to story. Made from a United States production context, Mid90s uses setting and design to clarify mood before dialogue has to explain it. The technical finish of Mid90s works because image, sound and editing appear to be serving the same immediate purpose.
Beneath its plot, Mid90s is most interested in embarrassment, status and the gap between confidence and reality. That concern becomes visible through Sunny Suljic, whose choices allow Mid90s to explore an idea without stopping for a speech. Follows Stevie gives the themes of Mid90s a concrete dramatic form rather than leaving them abstract. The emotional value of Mid90s grows whenever Jonah Hill trusts the audience to connect behaviour with the larger question.
Mid90s is most involving when the screenplay allows Follows Stevie to complicate what initially appears to be a story about Los Angeles. That shift gives Sunny Suljic a more specific problem to carry through Mid90s. Working from material credited to Jonah Hill, Mid90s reveals Motor Avenue at a measured pace instead of rushing toward its largest turn. The later pressure around the central character shows why Mid90s benefits whenever cause and consequence remain visibly connected.
Sunny Suljic gives Mid90s its most dependable performance, finding a clear emotional intention beneath the plot. Opposite Sunny Suljic, Katherine Waterston brings Mid90s a contrasting pace that prevents the central relationship from feeling flat. Lucas Hedges widens the ensemble of Mid90s through reactions that suggest a life beyond the immediate scene. Jonah Hill serves the cast of Mid90s best when a look or pause is allowed to finish before the story moves on.
Jonah Hill shapes Mid90s with an approach that feels careful about tone and generally effective. The best directed passages in Mid90s establish an objective, let the characters respond and then allow the pressure to change naturally. The film delivers more often than it misses in Mid90s, particularly when Jonah Hill resists the urge to underline an already clear emotion. My main reservation about Mid90s is that the middle loses a little urgency, a limitation that interrupts rather than defines the experience.
My final view is that Mid90s provides a likeable film whose strengths survive its limitations for comedy fans who respond to personality and timing. Sunny Suljic supplies the emotional memory of Mid90s, while Jonah Hill keeps the genre machinery readable. A concern remains because the middle loses a little urgency across part of Mid90s, yet the better passages retain their force. What earns Mid90s consideration is not perfection but the presence of choices that feel made for this story.
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