Summary
Stevie is 13 and ready to grow up. When he starts hanging out with a group of older skateboarders he finds a new family full of its own dis-functions and love.
My Thoughts
Wow. I’m glad i knew that this wasn’t a comedy before I saw it. I have a feeling there are a lot of folks that will see Jonah Hill’s name attached and assume it’s a comedy and, Boy, are they in for a rude surprise.
The film opens with Stevie’s older brother wailing on him. I’m not talking the normal brother on brother rough housing. I’m talking a call-child-protective-services style beating.
There are a lot of laughs in the film but this is solidly in the drama/coming of age category. And it is no slouch in that genre either. I’m not usually a fan of coming of age stories but this one is pretty unique. Maybe it’s the 90s nostalgia working its magic on my childhood but it really got to me in a way I didn’t expect.
One of the reasons the film works so well is the acting. I don’t know who any of the main kids are but they have an authentic quality that is missing from 90% of the films that come out in theaters. In fact, this whole film feels like it was shot, not with actors, but just normal kids doing what they do.
The way Stevie relates to the other kids and the way their inter relationships work is very authentic feeling as well. The movie is full of the sort of friendships you have when you are that age: simultaneously admiring, hating, being ashamed of, and being controlled by your friends who are sometimes not so friendly.
This is my favorite aspect of the film. As much as I liked “Eighth Grade,” it does suffer from a sort of binary, this-kids-a-good-kid and this-kids-a-bad-kid syndrome. People just aren’t like that usually. In “mid90s” each of the kids is good and bad. At times they are cool to Stevie and at others they aren’t. Sometimes Stevie seems more like an audience member, just watching the older boys establishing pecking order, partying, and skateboarding their hearts out.
The film rings so honest and earnest that it clearly comes from a heart that grew out of this era before cell phones and fear of letting kids just hang out on their own all day. In fact it doesn’t shy away from showing exactly some of the reasons we don’t let that happen anymore.
In the end, I feel remarkably satisfied by the story and the themes in this film. Sure, the cadre of teens huffing it around town on their boards may have their problems but Stevie learns, or maybe doesn’t but we the audience do, that growing up is as much about growing into who you are as it is about growing your first societies.
He could have grown older just staying at home with his family but growing up means joining societies other than your family’s, complete with their own rules, morals, and rewards. Stevie gets his first taste of this in mid90s and helps us all remember what it was like to dip our own toes into that water for the first time ourselves.
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