Stevie (Sunny Suljic) is a 13 year old in Los Angeles during the mid 90’s. He lives with his single mum (Katherine Waterston) and his older brother (Lucas Hedges). When he meets a group of teens in a skate shop he obtains a board and bonds with them over skating and growing up.

Written and directed by Jonah Hill, mid90’s is a coming of age film full of affection for the era and the skate lifestyle. He is also taking some bold and exciting choices in his directorial debut. It’s filmed in 4:3 aspect ratio so it looks like a home video filmed on one of the camcorders the various skaters are using all the time to capture their tricks. And it’s cast with real skateboarders and non professional actors. Aside from Waterston and Hedges everyone here is a first timer. And mostly it works out really well with their conversation feeling natural and down to earth. There are also some great little touches to keep scenes interesting, including some nice tracking shots and a party shot from a fixed angle that jumps between points in time.

In terms of plot this is purely about a group of kids bonding. They get drunk, take drugs, smoke and talk about the sort of nonsense teenage boys talk about. Sometimes the group start to separate and then they come back together based on their individual aspirations. But ultimately it’s about having fun over one summer in their lives. Think Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused with skateboards instead of cars and a change in era for the music.

I really enjoyed my 85 minutes returning to the mid 90’s, even if skateboarding L.A. was a little different from my teenage years in the mid 90’s in the south of England!