Eighth Grade
Molly Ringwald tweeted that Eighth Grade was the best film about adolescence that she’d seen in a long time. And I must agree. Eighth Grade, written and directed by Bo Burnham, is a beautifully candid and relatable telling of adolescence. The film is about Eighth Grade, but you don’t need to be an eighth grader to relate. The film centers Kayla (Elsie Fisher), a shy, introverted teen who presents herself online as confident, motivational and outgoing, while in reality, is awkward and unconfident. The film is lead by Elsie Fisher (Kayla), who steals the screen with her natural performance as she portrays her current generation, who are so focused on social media. We see Kayla use YouTube to do her make up in the morning, post her own motivational videos to her own channel and lurk on the popular girls’ Instagram pages. Fisher plays the role so naturally that it’s easy to feel what she does. The audience feels her pain, happiness, awkwardness and anxiety. Anxiety and in...