Review of mid90s (2018) by Thelettere — 16 Jan 2020

I had high hopes for this film. I'm a 90's kid, and I wanted a dose of nostalgia along with a good story.

What I got instead was a full-on mid-90's *&^% &^%$. Like the movie literally @#$%'s viewers with what is akin to a phallic object made of mid90's memorabilia. The stream of nostalgia literally never lets up the entire film. He has mid90's posters on his wall. He wears a TMNT shirt. In the background of scenes there are 90's sitcoms playing. And so on and so on.

Believe it or not, in the mid90s, we didn't always wear mid90s shirts. We didn't necessarily have mid90s posters on the wall. We sometimes watched sitcoms from (gasp!) the 80's. Or sometimes even the 70's. Point is, it just goes too far, such that immersion is impossible. The title should have sent that message with flashing lights, but my own nostalgic blinders likely prevented me from noticing. Who names a story after a time period? That isn't like a war pic? Good stories are about people, not about a time period.

And the main character here is a bore. And his relationship with his brother seems contrived. And it kinda goes nowhere.

I love most of what I've seen and heard of Jonah Hill. He seems like such a likable dude. I just wish I could say the same thing about his film.