Eighth Grade

My wife and I watched this movie on DVD from our public library. We enjoyed it, and while watching it I gave thanks that my 5 were teenagers before the era of smartphones and social media.

This was written and directed by Bo Burnham, himself not far out of his teen years, and as he says in the DVD extra he was inspired by his own experiences as a teenager.

Most teenage angst movies are about high school, this one instead focuses on a 13-yr-old who is just finishing up 8th grade and anticipating high school. Elsie Fisher is just so authentic as the kid, Kayla Day. She is usually pretty quiet, rarely putting herself "out there", but she makes and posts what might be considered "self help" videos for fellow teens. The irony is that she rarely follows her own advice. But she is trying, and she does get to the point of realizing that sometimes you just have to "fake it until you make it."

Overall it is a good and entertaining take on growing up with some elements that are not often done in these kinds of movies. Also Josh Hamilton is good as the single dad, Mark Day, who tries really hard to establish meaningful communication with his daughter, and eventually it works.

Unlike so many of a similar vein, 'Eighth Grade (2018)' isn't about 'kids gone wild' or 'the corruption of a constantly online world'. Rather, it's simply about a good person trying to figure out what it means to be herself. It's both a tender reflection and an in-the-moment snapshot, one that's not fuelled by nostalgia so much as empathy. It's wonderfully authentic and, as such, is incredibly relatable. There's nothing flippant about the flick, either. It comments on the internet, and social-media in particular, without being dismissive of it, never reducing social-media to some sort of blanket 'evil'. It's more nuanced than that, understanding where the root of most problems come from, and wholly accepts the world as it is. It tells a small story with small stakes that sort of seem non-existent - that is, until you remember just how big everything seemed when you were a child. Social anxiety as antagonist is a difficult thing to pull off, yet this does it almost impeccably. It also features one of the best father-daughter relationships I've seen on screen, one which culminates in a truly beautiful fire-side scene. Overall, the piece is pacy, nontraditional and entertaining. It's really uplifting, too. In some ways, it sort of functions as one of its protagonist's self-help videos: no matter how old you are, it tells you that everything is going to be okay. It's delightful. 8/10

I knew Burnham as comedy writer and performer but not as a film director. A very realistic and honest presentation of adolescent transitions and its difficulties in our modern society. Extremely accurate.

This film really gives you a glimpse into the lives of teenagers who are growing up in 2 different worlds at the same time. The digital world and the physical world. For kids today, the digital world is easier to navigate. And I think that is why they are so deeply attached to it.

If you want an action packed, drama filled movie, then this probably isn't for you. Kayla's story is not an extraordinary one, I believe its one shared by a great deal of young people, myself included. And that is exactly why I think this is an important and heart wrenching film, especially for those who can see themselves in her struggles. Would highly recommend.

I wasn't going to review this film until I read the other reviews. But the way a large number of people so negatively react to this film is a testament to how powerful it really is, and perhaps says more about the film than those reviews themselves ever could.

We live in a world that hates the truth. And "Eighth Grade" is pure truth. The most remarkable thing about the film is how it refrains from dramatizing how young people today grow up and interact, and instead tries to simply show things how they are. You can argue how successful they were in this attempt, but I think they got it pretty close. And some things about growing up are timeless. While the technology may have changed, all of the things Kayla did in the film, I also did at that age. I also came from a broken home and background of trauma, and I was also not popular. One review said that you had to be a loser to like this film, and maybe there is more than a nugget of truth there. The kid who was head of the class in Grade 8 might have a tough time relating.

The film does very little to explain all this to the viewer, and does not make any attempt to show why Kayla is how she is. This is fascinating because that is exactly how our society, and in particular teen society, works: it is blind to why people are how they are, and simply ruthlessly sorts them into categories such as attractive/popular and ugly/unpopular. It seems that people who are used to going along with this way of thinking are puzzled and unsettled by the film.

What "Eighth Grade" ultimately is, is a mirror. It simply reflects back to us what our world is. There is no editorialization. So when so many people are recoiling in horror from a mirror, what does that actually say?