Monday, February 4, 2019

Eighth Grade (2018, R)


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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