Eighth Grade

If more contemporary teen films resembled 2018's EIGHTH GRADE, I would in fact watch more of them.  Truth.  Writer/director Bo Burnham, previously best known as a stand up comic, has created such an honest yet uncynical look at that most difficult of school years, that I actually felt good about this genre.  That all the awful movies and T.V. series portraying adolescents were wiped away, forgotten.  Atoned for, even.

Kayla (Elsie Fisher) is one week away from leaving Miles Grove Middle School forever.  We gather it hasn't been the best of times.  The snotty girls ignore her.  When one is forced to invite her to a pool party it is done in the most apathetic manner possible.  As social media positively dominates these kids' lives, it comes in the form of an Instant Message.  But then, everything is done that way now, much to the chagrin of Kayla's father Mark (Josh Hamilton), whose wife left them some time back.

Kayla regularly posts videos on YouTube that attempt to address issues like shyness, anxiety, and comfortable numbness.  Things Kayla struggles with daily.  It is not lost on her that the very advice she gives is unheeded by the giver.  But she tries, and actually attends that pool party and even grabs the mic for karaoke.  Her social standing does not improve.  That guy she pines for still barely notices her.  But maybe nobody notices anyone anymore, Burnham argues, as everyone is hypnotized by their devices.

EIGHTH GRADE does as good a job as any movie I've seen of replicating the crushing introversion and fear someone like Kayla would experience.  The breakdown in the bathroom before joining the party.  The awkward "Truth or Dare" game that turns painful (a fabulous scene).  The film more than subtly suggests that the omnipresence of the Internet has defined these kids, who've never known life without it.  An already complicated age - biologically and otherwise - made seemingly impossible.  The cruelty that has always existed in junior high/middle school now has a much wider scope, and reach.  How does such a gentle spirit survive?  If you look at statistics, you'll find many do not.

So yes, Burnham shows little has changed for 13 - 14 year olds despite the social media and (related?) mass shooting threats.  But this would also include the spirit to persevere.  This is a special, beautiful movie.