Jonah Hill’s Directorial Debut Mid-90s

 

Jonah Hill is cooking up a dose of nostalgia with his directorial debut, Mid-90s. Upon doing the press rounds for War Dogs, Judd Apatow’s imminent comedy that orders the Oscar-nominated star to the Middle East, Hill spoke to Collider about his first foray behind the lens, and why it’s “sort of like a coming-of-age drama.”

If that doesn’t pique your interest, don’t fret; Jonah Hill himself admitted that it isn’t an elevator pitch to steal the headlines, but later in the interview the Jump Street stalwart shed new light on his journey to the Mid-90s, and how his vision is being shaped by the tone of “Kids or This is England.”

He said “It’s sort of like a coming-of-age drama—it’s the most boring elevator pitch in the world, but it takes place in a skateboarding scene in the mid-90s in L.A…. Skateboarding’s always been put on screen as a joke or an 80s cowabunga kind of trope, and it’s more in the tone of Kids or This Is England. Those are kind of the movies that I’m influenced by the most.”

Having pitched the script to A24 himself, Mid-90s can be viewed as something of a passion project for Jonah Hill, which is certainly shaping up to be a more grounded, dramatic affair than a light-hearted skateboarding pic told through the lens of adolescent teens.