Eighth Grade

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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 insecurity are main themes of the film, and both themes are represented so honestly that it almost brought me to tears with how much I could relate to some scenes. I felt my own breath get taken away as she had a panic attack in the bathroom before facing the pool party, I felt anxious with her when she tried to start conversations with peers and I cringed along with her at a failed interaction. Not entirely because I felt for her. Almost because I felt for myself, because the situations were so familiar. These moments that Kayla experiences are the moments that shape who we are as people and Burnham captured them so authentically and naturally.

While the anxieties throughout the film are somewhat more relevant to her generation, what with her obsession with social media likes and desire to get more views on her YouTube videos, her anxiety is still relatable to us all. The film stuck with me. I saw myself in her while watching. Not only my thirteen-year-old self, but my current self. Kayla, from her awkwardness in social situations, her desire to be liked, and her loving but embarrassing Dad (Josh Hamilton) is a relatable character for everyone, and a reason everyone should watch this film.

Overall there isn’t much to dislike about the movie. The characters are likable (with a few exceptions), it is shot beautifully, the performances are stellar, and the narrative is authentic and 100% relatable.I went in not knowing much about the story, minus the obvious fact that it was about a girl in eighth grade, and finished knowing this was now one of my favourite films. Definitely a great first film for Burnham and I look forward to seeing what he comes up with next.

In the words of Kayla: Gucci.

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