Full Movie Reviews
Rating of
3/4
Mid90s - Review
Matthew Brady - wrote on 02/11/2020
Jonah Hill's directorial debut is pretty decent, but pretty flawed.
It's like 'This is England', just more 90's American.
While not the most original take on the coming-of-age story and even Jonah Hill agrees, and yet what stopped it from being stale is it's presentation.
The performances and cinematography are the strongest element of the movie. Sunny Suljic was terrific as Stevie. He delivered a humble performance while also displaying a troubled side. Lucas Hedges was great and appropriately casted in the part, especially when he's given the opportunity to work with material that suites him.
However my issues stem from the lack of development from some characters for me to care for them. Not all of the scenes that were suppose to be emotional work for me, because I didn't …
Rating of
3.5/4
Not Old or Wise, But Still So Much We Can Learn
Chris Kavan - wrote on 01/12/2019
I have to say that 2018 was a banner year for portraying the emotion and drama of teen life that truly had impact. On one hand, you have Eighth Grade that lets you look through the eyes of Kayla (Elsie Fisher) that shows us what modern-day teens have to deal with. On the other hand you have this film, in which Sunny Suljic gives an equally powerful performance and even though (as the title suggests) it takes place in the past, the lessons learned are just as important.
Suljic plays Stevie, a 13-year-old being raised in the L.A. area by a young, single mother (Katherine Waterston) who looks up to his older brother, Ian (Lucas Hedges) who spends the majority of the film either ignoring him or beating him up. You get a real nice picture of this family life during Ian's short birthday …
