Review of mid90s (2018) by Sarah N — 03 Nov 2018

This movie had the potential to be good, but it tried to tackle too much in a short run time. It covered very heavy topics including but not limited to abuse, underage drug use, drunk driving, young single mothers, absent parents, poverty, racism, self-harm, and sexual assault.

All of these issues were present, but not addressed. To me, it seemed that the writers wanted to throw in as many issues and hardships as they could, but did not have the energy to follow through on them.

The biggest example is sexual assault. A thirteen year old boy should not be having sexual relations with a high school age girl. Yet, this is completely dismissed by the movie and is not meant to be seen as sexual assault.

If the genders were reversed, the narrative and reaction would have been extremely different. Because this was a young boy though, it is seen as the girl was doing him a favor even though he kept saying he was extremely nervous and was shaking during the scenes shown.

This did not even add to the plot, it was there to show what a cool life Stevie was living and romanticized the horrible things in this life. I left this movie feeling disgusted about the messages it was portraying to its viewers.