Eighth Grade (Review)

Eighth Grade Reminds Me How Hard Growing Up is and Also Why I Don’t Have Kids.

There’s a lot going for Eighth Grade, a film that reminds us all that those years of adolescence were not exactly the “good old days.” There’s a lot of turmoil that comes with figuring out who you are and learning what the real meaning of confidence is. Sure there are a lot of cliches that you could spout about being yourself and forcing yourself to be out there. But that’s a lot easier said than done, which is why everyone and their mother has written a self-help book. The reality though is that giving other people good advice is a lot easier than following it yourself.

I’ll admit that I wasn’t thrilled with the first half of Eighth Grade. The protagonist, Kayla (Elsie Fisher), is a girl in her last week of middle school. Like so many of us, she’s an absolute mess of nerves and is struggling with being, well, kind of a loser. The thing is that she knows this and desperately wants to better herself, which is admirable but turns out to be a double edge sword. With that desire to be better comes a sick realization that in doing so she is defining herself as someone who is no good enough. Thus, crippling anxiety and anger issues directed towards her father (Josh Hamilton) take up the majority of the first and even second act.

This though is where Eighth Grade shines. Elsie is so good at being a bundle of nerves that it actually created second-hand anxiety for me. I found myself dreading everything that not only was happening to her but what could happen to her. It was horrible in the best possible way. Luckily, there’s enough humor to take the edge off and prevent an all-out panic attack. The thing is that it’s exactly how I remember being at that age. Fisher embraces the uncertainty that comes with being a tween on the cusp of being hurled into high school. She portrays the character as being just awkward enough where it starts to feel completely natural. I don’t mean in a rehearsed kind of “natural”, but in a way that felt like someone shouted “action” at her before she was ready and she raced out to do the scene. Stammering and flustered, her off-putting approach actually starts to become endearing because it feels so genuine.

There isn’t much of a plot to Eighth Grade because it’s a slice of life film. There is no external conflict for Kayla to overcome. Instead, we just bear witness to her trying to survive the last week of middle school. She struggles with issues of self-confidence by trying to force herself to be the kind of person she thinks she should be. Social media has dominated her life to the point where she puts on makeup in the morning and gets back in bed to take a “woke up this way” snapchat. Her videos are all about her trying to give advice to others on how she thinks she should be acting. It’s an epic attempt at trying to fake it til you make it, but it only goes to prove that her faking it is just another way at rejecting self-love that will lead to confidence.

As much as I enjoyed Eighth Grade it made me feel lucky not to have children of my own. Kayla flips out at her father for every little thing because she’s so mad at herself for not being who she hoped she would be. While I’m well aware that everyone goes through these angry rebellious phases, it was done so well that I felt myself growing annoyed with her as a character. Luckily, the character has an amazing dad who doesn’t let his daughter’s attitude diminish his love and admiration for her. Oh, and there are also a lot of awkward scenes in there that made me feel lucky that I didn’t have children sitting next to me watching Kayla try to wrap her mind around her budding sexuality. This is compounded by the fact that Eighth Grade reminds me just how insufferable “boys” are at that age. Luckily I wasn’t like that, but I was a huge mess of nerves myself which made it impossible for me to try to bully and manipulate girls since I was constantly on the verge of a panic attack just talking to them.

Bo Burnham did a pretty good job with his first feature film, but it’s hard not to see parallels with other movies like Lady Bird and Boyhood. That’s the trouble with coming of age movies though, they’re a dime a dozen. This might undermine Eighth Grade a little bit because so many films have shown what a struggle growing up is. However, Eighth Grade manages to separate itself thanks to some truly great performances from the cast. They’re so good though that it’s hard to watch them. There are some truly poignant themes and concepts that are explored throughout the film, but it’s going to be a hard movie to watch with kids. So, if you think this might be a good flick to see with your own eighth graders, think again, because Eighth Grade reminds us all just how awful we all were at that age.