Growing up in Waukegan in the 1990s, Joshua Mallet made movies in his basement and started his own record label — RiP Records — while still a student at Waukegan High School.
Finding it more practical to record music in his bedroom than to make movies around town, Mallett embarked on a recording career, becoming a Christian hip-hop artist and earning consideration for Grammy awards.
Though he made music videos, he never forgot his moviemaking experience. Mallett is currently making his first feature-length film in which he is the screenwriter, director and producer. While fictional, he said it is based on people and activities he knew as a youngster in Waukegan.
“I decided it’s time,” Mallett said. “It is going to be one day or day one,” he added, as he is putting all his creative energy into making “The 90s Movie,” the working title of the film, which will get a precise name before it is released next spring.
Most of the movie is being made in Wisconsin, where he now lives, but Mallet decided to come home to Waukegan to film a scene.
Mallett, his crew and the actors filmed a scene for “The 90s Movie” on Thursday outside Shirl’s Drive-In on Lewis Avenue in Waukegan, bringing an authentic scene to the story of four friends during the summer between middle school and high school.
“It was a place I knew as a kid,” he said, referring to his choice of Shirl’s. “We went there a lot, and to the miniature golf course next door. There are a lot of good memories.”
As the two-person film crew used the camera and other equipment, one of the actors playing a teen girl in the movie walked out of Shirl’s with two dishes of ice cream, sat down and they both began to eat.
Rachel Rivera, 21, of Gurnee, plays the female lead in the movie. She is the person in the scene waiting for the ice cream which is then placed before her. She said she has acted since she was 18, and is comfortable playing a 14-year-old. She has done some research to prepare for the part.
“I listen to a lot of tunes from the ’90s,” Rivera said. “I get the feel of what it was like to be a 14-year-old then.”
Inspired by the late John Hughes, Mallett said he wrote the script from experiences he had while growing up in Waukegan as Hughes did about his youth in Northbrook. Mallett remembers what it was like moving from middle school to high school.
“I wrote from what I know,” he said, “It’s a fictional narrative based on people I knew. It’s based on real-life characters. I feel blown away I’ve been able to pull this off on a limited budget.”
Born in Elk Grove Village in 1981, Mallett moved with his family to Waukegan entering first grade at McCall Elementary School before going to Andrew Cooke Magnet Elementary School, Robert Abbott Middle School and graduating from Waukegan High School in 2000.
After spending a little time at the College of Lake County, Mallett said he decided to go into the music business. Along with recording his own songs, he helped other artists develop their work and helped with the promotion of the tunes. He also performed as a deejay.
Now, Mallet is solely focused on his film. He describes it as a “coming of age movie” about four boys and their romances with girlfriends during the summer of 1998 before they become high school students. He hopes the film will get a PG rating.
“I want all of my movies to bring value to people and a positive message to people,” he said. “This movie is about the last generation that did not have technology.”
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