On opening night, in a sold-out theater in Union Square, students rolled in repping college apparel, teens ran up the stairs with skateboards stuffed in their backpacks, and adults in pressed suits all sat down for Mid90s, the writing and directorial debut from former Lang student, Jonah Hill.
After four years and 20 screenplay drafts, Jonah Hill has successfully pivoted from his career as an actor with his masterful, personal love letter to growing up, Mid90s.
Whether you’re in your teens or your 30’s (Hill is currently 34), the film brings enough nostalgia and rawness to the screen to take anyone back to their childhood. Mid90s was shot on Super 16mm Film, in a 4:3 aspect ratio, and literally looks like it was filmed during a Los Angeles summer in 1996. It plays like an old home video, set to the soundtrack of Wu-Tang Clan, A Tribe Called Quest, and The Pixies.
The sharp, 84-minute coming-of-age dramedy highlights hip-hop, skate culture, and that time in your life where it’s friends-over-family. Mid90s was released in four theaters on October 19th, earning a $64k per-theater average over the weekend, according to boxofficemojo.com, the fourth highest per-theater average in 2018.
The movie follows Stevie (Sunny Suljic), as he breaks out of his lonely and painful life at home, leaving his abusive big brother Ian (Lucas Hedges), and overly-attached mother (Katherine Waterston) behind to befriend a group of teenage misfits. Over the summer, Stevie is introduced to drinking, sex, skating, and most importantly, the sense of belonging, and the feeling of finally being accepted by the people you look up to.
Hill’s success as an actor turned filmmaker is inspiring students all across The New School.
“As an aspiring comedian and filmmaker, I would always google where my role models went to school. I quickly found out that Jonah went toThe New School and wrote plays here. That definitely made transferring here from Baruch even more exciting. Seeing the trajectory his career has taken since leaving The New School is incredibly inspiring,” said Zev Prince, a Media Studies major.
Hill started his career as a loud-mouthed, comedic actor, starring in “Knocked Up” and “Superbad.” But his repertoire was bigger than comedy, as he received two Academy-Award nominations for Best SupportingActor in 2011’s “Moneyball,” and 2013’s “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
Hill fell into this incredible acting career simply because he wasn’t mature enough to know how to speak to actors. He was interviewed by CBS Sunday Morning and said, “I was going to New School, and I was writing these one-act plays there, and when I would talk to actors, I didn’t have a good bedside manner. I would be like, ‘Why aren’t they saying it like I want them to say it?’ So I took an acting class to see how I’d like to be spoken to [as an actor], to maybe help my skills as a writer or director.”
While at The New School, Hill’s professors encouraged him to pursue acting. In his interview with New York City radio show, The Breakfast Club, he said, “It was the first time teachers were like, ‘Wow, you’re really good at something.’ When you’re a kid who wasn’t that good at stuff, you’re like okay, I’ll take whatever I can get right now.”
“I think there’s this overwhelming sense that success is possible at The New School, no matter how you define it,” said Juliana Braka, a Literary Studies major.
Prince, the Media Studies major, said, “It was an incredible experience and there was a standing ovation after the credits rolled. The soundtrack was one of the best I’ve ever heard in a film. Mid90s was served justice to both the skateboard and hip-hop community.”
In conjunction with the film, Hill released a one-off magazine, Inner Children, with A24, the production company behind Lady Bird, Moonlight, and Mid90s, in which he interviewed Michael Cera, Edie Falco, and many others. In the magazine’s manifesto, Hill wrote, “I really believe everyone has a snapshot of themselves from a time when they were young that they’re ashamed of. For me, it’s that 14-year-old overweight and unattractive kid who felt ugly to the world, who listened to hip-hop and wanted so badly to be accepted by this group of skaters.”
Despite a successful and diverse acting career, Hill always dreamt of a life behind the camera. Mid90s marks the beginning of a new chapter, where he is finally putting his own words in front of the world.
“I believe it’s important for a filmmaker to wait until they know what they want to say. They shouldn’t just make the movie that film executives want them to make. They should make a movie that is personal to them,” said Anthony Pagnotta, a non-degree seeking student at The New School.
Hill perfectly described the film when he told The Breakfast Club, “This is what I am. This is my heart. I stand by it. That’s Mid90s.”
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Illustration by Olivia Heller