Mid90s

One of the benefits of living a mile up a West Virginia holler in 1978 is that I had a mile of road -- which was paved, most of the time -- to skateboard on without any real traffic. Hell, there was so little traffic at times on that road that I could set up a slalom course, complete with small, orange cones, around which I could maneuver.

And by "maneuver" I mean "falling on my ass over and over again until I was bloody and bruised."

I didn't take to being a skateboarder, really. For lots of reasons.

First, I had a crappy skateboard. It looked a lot like the one in this photograph, although I suspect the one in the picture was of better quality. If the board I rode hit a small pebble I was thrown to the ground.

And there were lots of pebbles on the road that went up my holler.


Second --and perhaps most important -- skateboarding seems to me the sorta activity you gotta do with other people. It's a social sport, one where you watch others and try to emulate or outdo them.

You skate a little, sit and talk, skate some more, sit and laugh, skate some more. Repeat.

The social aspect of skating -- being a part of a skating community, and forming an identify around that -- is at the heart of Jonah Hill's Mid90s. The film stars several professionals who are almost as good at acting as they are skateboarding. A small band of  kids dreaming of making it big on the pro circuit, looking out for each other while all the while busting balls.

Stevie, played with remarkable authenticity by Sunny Suljic, is drawn to the group at a time in his life when he's trying to find his identify. He learns to smoke and drink and curse and skate. But more than that, he learns to be a part of something bigger than himself.

It's not always a pretty something. But it's something that fills a void.

Mid90s is a terrific film, a near-home run for first time director Hill. And, I think, it's a flick that will make Suljic a star.