Hill’s ‘Mid90s’ avoids nostalgia and embraces timeless themes

“Mid90s” – Looking back at 1995, millions of Americans flocked to see “Braveheart” and “Toy Story” in theatres, listened to TLC’s “Waterfalls” on the radio, watched “ER”, “Seinfeld” and “Friends” on television, were fascinated by the O.J. Simpson trial, and loaded Windows95 on their personal computers.  Even though these cultural phenomenons (and many more) captured the public’s attention 23 years ago, they do not appear in writer/director Jonah Hill’s movie “Mid90s”, about a group of skateboarding kids in Los Angeles. This is by design. During a Sept. 2018 interview, Hill…

‘Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot’ gets horribly lost

“Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot” – According to Google, a mess is defined as a situation or state of affairs that is confused or full of difficulties. Gus Van Sant’s “Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot” – a biopic about cartoonist John Callahan’s life after a car accident left him mostly paralyzed at age 21 – is a mess. A confusing mess, one that Van Sant overcomplicates and creates narrative difficulties, where none should exist. A successful film adaption of John’s story should be a foregone…