Eighth Grade (2019) - Movie Review

Part of me hates movies like this. Sure, I’m not entirely adverse to coming-of-age stories, as I’ve covered some pretty damn good ones over the last few years like You’re Not Thinking Straight, The Edge Of Seventeen, Lady Bird and Love, Simon. However, the part of me that dislikes going out to see this category of cinema, and something that reaches somewhat of an apex with this film, is a very specific type of cringe. The kind that comes from seeing adolescents and teenagers struggling with their own awkwardness in a school setting, making one realise just how awkward they themselves were at that age. If that’s not the feeling you get from seeing films like this, I'm assuming you come from somewhere in Andromeda.

Writer/director Bo Burnham’s claim to fame prior to this, in my view at least, was his stand-up routine taking the piss out of modern country music. For someone who is best known for pointing out the pandering nature of a given form of media, it’s cool that that mentality holds true here because this depiction of middle school life is anything but pandering. The depiction of Kayla, through one hell of a leading performance by Elsie Fisher, channels the very bizarre transition that is going from one school bracket to another with staggering empathy. All the social apprehension, all the struggling to figure out one’s own consciousness, all the exceedingly trying attempts made by the adults to seem like they’re doing with what them young people are doing; it all rings true, even considering the very specific generation that is being highlighted.

It’s honestly kind of weird to think about the post-Millennial generation in terms of how much social media affects their upbringing. I mean, I was in eighth grade myself only eleven years ago, and even I remember the Internet having an impact on how we were socially. Cut to today, where the entry point for the best/worst thing humanity has ever created is getting younger and younger, and even for adults, social media can be a trying experience to deal with.

And through Kayla, we certainly get that impression with how her own psychology manifests through her use of YouTube and Instagram. Her videos feel like the synthesis of two age-old pieces of self-help advice (“Fake it ‘till you make it” and “What advice would you give yourself in this situation?”), the result of which is a strangely acute form of pretence that is oh-so-very pubescent. It’s like watching emo kids act like they’re the first generation to discover that the world sucks, something that's all too understandable once it sets in how little the rest of the world seems willing to actually prepare them for what lies ahead.

But more so than anything specifically to do with adolescence or school or even coming-of-age, the big thing I took away from this is how well Bo Burnham knows what social anxiety feels like. Between his direction and scripting and Anna Meredith’s heavy electronic score, this is a genuinely amazing look at what it’s like to be someone who struggles with social situations in a very real way.

When Kayla is confronted with going to a pool party, or catching the eye of her crush, or trying to chat with friends at the mall, or even dealing with one of the most shockingly realistic depictions of truth-or-dare I've seen in any film, these aren’t presented as everyday events; they comes across like the most harrowing things a person could be dealing with. There’s even an inclusion of Kayla talking to someone on the phone and pacing in her room as she talks; I could feel myself receding into my chest at just how me that moment was. It is rather confronting trying to figure out how to engage in those settings, and it’s an experience that isn’t easy to grow out of. Mostly because growing up doesn’t automatically fix it; you either have the equipment to deal with it... or you don't. There are some things that school just isn't capable of teaching.

For all the school-set dramedys I’ve covered on here, this is honestly the one that I’m most fond of. Partly because it shows remarkable smoothness in depicting a myriad of decidedly not-smooth scenarios, partly because it breaks from the pack and gives a different yet just as vital variation of the typical story, but mainly because this touches on notions of social awkwardness that go far beyond just school-aged problems. It’s not the easiest thing to sit through without feeling the urge to put one’s face in their hand, but that’s only because it’s just that close-to-the-bone in its depiction of the joy, the pain and the downright cringe that is growing up.