I think
this film may have come to my local theater, but only very briefly, and I just didn’t have time to see it. I finally got a chance, though, and I’m again
finding myself grateful that I had enough room in my “Oscar movie” schedule to
fit in some non-nominated films. I loved this movie; it’s so wonderful, and
its place on so many Oscar snub lists is completely justified.
Kayla is
a shy, anxious girl who wishes she had more friends, more confidence, and more
attention from boys. As she enters her
final week of 8th grade, her YouTube channel is full of the advice
vlogs she records about “being yourself” and “putting yourself out there,” but
her real-life execution of her own advice features a lot more fumbles than
successes. Kayla works to navigate
social media, pool parties, crushes, and an awkward relationship with her dad,
desperate to change but not sure how.
I
hesitate to declare the feelings of this movie universal for anyone who’s ever
been a middle-school girl, since there’s a very definite
white/straight/probably middle-class perspective here, but I sure know that I
found it deeply relateable. Even as
someone who didn’t “have Snapchat in fifth grade,” I recognize lots of young
aspects of myself in Kayla’s awkwardness and self-esteem issues (working up the
courage to make a phone call and then pacing through the whole thing is very
me, and I relate so hard to the montage of her practicing conversations in her
bedroom,) and her use of technology and social media feels very true-to-life
from what I’ve witnessed working in middle schools and high schools. I know I’ve been the girl who feels
invisible, the girl who feels like I don’t have anyone to share my interests
with, and the girl who sits off to the side, unable to jump onto the moving
train of the conversation.
The plot
has a very “indie movie” feel to it in that it doesn’t have a clear story arc in
which specific beats lead in a specific direction. It’s a lot more meandering than that, but at
the same time, it never really gets aimless, which is an issue that can
sometimes make my attention wane with indie movies. Instead, it has thematic throughlines that it
follows, branching off from them in various directions but always returning to
the central idea of Kayla’s internal/interpersonal journey of trying to figure
out how to be the sort of girl she wishes she was.
Comedian
Bo Burnham writes and directs this movie, his feature debut, and he does a
splendid job on both counts. On the
writing side, he absolutely nails the ecosystem of a middle school social
structure like this, as well as the insecurity and anxiety of Kayla’s place
within it. I feel it’s rare for a male
screenwriter to capture a female experience so accurately, but I think Burnham
is right on the money. As for the
direction, it’s non-showy but really well done.
As I said, he does nice work incorporating social media in a really
grounded way, and there are great establishing-shot touches of kids being so
Textbook Middle School, it’s crazy. Oh,
and I laugh at the music and slow-mo that kicks in every time Kayla sees her
crush.
I’m not
familiar with Elsie Fisher, who plays Kayla, although it looks like she’s been
working for a while in both live-action and voiceover. She does wonderfully here, sympathetic and
very, very real. I also want to
highlight Josh Hamilton as her dad, who loves Kayla and is clearly trying to
connect with her, even if he struggles with the how part. Their scenes
together are consistently great, and one particular scene between them near the
end of the movie had me bawling.
Warnings
Strong
thematic elements, sexual content (no actual content from the young characters,
but a fair amount of talk and curious Googling, along with a well-done scene of
Kayla getting into a situation she’s not ready for,) and language.
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