Mid90s movie review & film summary (2018)
Stevie is first seen being beaten up by Ian. We don't know why. Throughout the film, variations of this scene repeat, giving the brothers' fights a ritualistic aspect. Ian, wearing a Bill Clinton mask, ambushes Stevie, chasing him through the house, punching and pummeling him. Stevie doesn't question this. Ian is practically non-verbal. Mom doesn't notice something is "off" in her sons' relationship. One day, Stevie catches a glimpse of a group of four rowdy kids holding skateboards, sassing back to a storeowner. Something about the boys attracts him, and he wanders into their group, trying to get closer. These boys, in their later teens, around Ian's age, sit around in a ramshackle storefront skateboard shop. Their dynamic is a closed system, but they accept Stevie's presence, and let him hang out with them. Stevie doesn't know how to skate so he practices at home in the driveway, falling constantly. The older boys are fluid on their skateboards, flying up stairways, careening along railings, and thinking up different tricks to do to prove their own skills and daring.
The leader of the group, Ray (Na-kel Smith), is the only one without a nickname, and he seems more mature than the others. He has dreams of "going pro" with skateboarding, something that started to become a real possibility in the mid-'90s. Ray's best friend, with long blonde Twisted Sister curls, is nicknamed Fuckshit (Olan Prenatt) because he prefaces every comment with a drawling, "Fuuuck. Shit." Fourth Grade (Ryder McLaughlin), nicknamed because that's about his level of intelligence, films their skateboarding exploits with a little camcorder. And finally, there's the insecure Ruben (Gio Galicia), closest to Stevie in age, who takes Stevie under his wing, giving him very bad advice ("Don't thank people because they'll think you're gay"), and rolling his eyes every time Stevie makes some social gaffe. Fear of being "gay"—or being perceived as gay—even through something like good manners—is a given. The unquestioned ruinous rules of "manhood" already dominate these kids. There are barely any adults in the movie. Besides Stevie's mom, and one girl Stevie meets at a party, women are nonexistent, in both the larger world, and in the skateboarding world. (Earlier this year, the wonderful "Skate Kitchen" highlighted the girls in the skateboarding scene, a nice and necessary counterpoint.)
Most of these kids have almost no film or television credits to their names, making Suljic the veteran of the group. But their dynamic —free-wheeling discussions, razzing each other, talking stuff out—really makes the film, immersing us fully into the skateboarding world as experienced by this specific group. They seem like they've been friends since kindergarten. Hill has always used improvisation in his own work as an actor, and trusts that process with the actors here. Nobody "gives a performance" in the self-conscious sense of the word. Hill leaves them alone, letting them be onscreen, not trying too hard to build conflict. Ray's seriousness about skateboarding starts to drive a wedge between him and the more easygoing Fuckshit. We are seeing them in the moment before they all part ways. In one sense, the character of Ruben—young and yet old from experience, insecure, terrified of not seeming "cool," embarrassed by Stevie's openness—is central to the film's apparent subtext. The boys are teenagers, yes, but this is when things start to go wrong for people, when they start to build protective armor they won't be able to shed. Ruben is trapped by the attitudes about manhood, and he doesn't even know it. Ray is unhindered by the same attitudes. More could have been made of this dynamic and the script is repetitive: there are one too many Stevie pep talks, for example, making you wonder if Ray has nothing better to do with his time than talk this kid through his problems.
