Not many people born in the last thirty years would claim that middle school is anything other than unmitigated torture, a formless purgatory between the mania of elementary and the rage of high school. Eighth Grade, the filmmaking debut from comedian Bo Burnham, is a movie that fully embodies that experience, that expresses the longing and the loneliness of approaching adolescence. The film follows Kayla (a fantastic Elsie Fisher), a screen-obsessed eighth grader who produces her own YouTube videos where she dispatches platitude-heavy advice monologues about being yourself and becoming more confident. The videos belie her actual behavior at school, where her shyness actually awards her the superlative “Most Quiet”. Now, why a school would give out that kind of superlative is beyond me, but it gives you a good idea of the kind of hell Kayla is living in.
Kayla lives with her single father, Mark (Josh Hamilton), a well-meaning, aw-shucks personality whom Kayla cannot stand. His attempts to make nice and encourage his daughter are usually met with scowls and demands to go back to what she actually enjoys: her phone and her laptop. On Snapchat and Instagram, Kayla gets to live vicariously through the more popular students, gets to sneak a peek into their actual lives, a life she dreams about constantly but can only imagine. When her school’s popular girl – voted ‘Best Eyes’ – Kennedy (Catherine Oliviere) is forced to invite Kayla to a pool party (Kennedy’s mother is hoping for Mark’s attendance), Kayla goes despite her initial fears. It gives her a chance to finally put into practice all of the pep talks that she broadcasts to others on the internet. She learns quickly that most of the time it’s easier said than done.
Eighth Grade doesn’t have much of a structured arc, but is more of a collection of moments strung together where Kayla pushes herself to break free from her introversion and finds that the consequences of that can be a mixed bag. As the disgruntled teen, Fisher is absolutely remarkable, a precise comic performer who also manages to juggle the film’s heavier ventures into the themes of self-deception and constructing self-esteem. Kayla at times covets popularity, she certainly seeks out the attention of the school’s resident hot boy, Aiden (Luke Prael) – the male winner of ‘Best Eyes’ – but mostly she just wants a friend. Alone with a father she has no patience for, the only recourse she has for communication is a one-sided conversation with the internet which gives her a very warped reality of friendship and romance.
The film is filled with cringe-y moments, mostly dealing with Kayla considering sex for the first time. The world of teenaged boys, filled with ignorant horniness, is a completely unknown terrain. Writer-director Bo Burnham manages to roam these tricky areas with grace and respect, and still manages to portray the terror of predatory sexual politics that go beyond the blunt horror of assault. It’s the film’s ability to show the underlying insecurity at the root of everything that makes Eighth Grade so effective. That comedian Bo Burnham – one known for his sarcastic, cynical delivery – would be the filmmaker who would so thoroughly and heartbreakingly display the utter loneliness of being a middle school student is something beyond my comprehension. Something this genuine is not something that I would have ever predicted from him. Yet, here we are.
Written and Directed by Bo Burnham