Review of Eighth Grade (2018) by Adam M — 06 Sep 2018

Hashtag relatable yo. As someone who also has some embarrassing old videos floating around the internet, I connected with Kayla right off the bat. Though the long, uninterrupted shot of Kayla talking to her laptop camera paired with Elsie Fisher's nuanced, sensitive portrayal likely would have done that anyway. Eighth Grade doesn't break new ground, it's a fairly typical coming of age story all things considered, very similar to last year's Edge of Seventeen.

But Eighth Grade is a shining example of this kind of movie. The editing and the score are amazing, the pool scene was genuinely terrifying, and it gave me flashbacks to a very similar time in my own life. Being a chubby kid at a pool party isn't fun. I love so much about this movie, and it gets so much of it's material so right. From the father daughter relationship, to the way it handles the standing up to the bully moment without compromising the personality of our hero, to the way it communicates adolescent lust. It's written and directed by Bo Burnham, which gives me an odd sense of pride. Bo is one of the things I can be truly hipstery about, I remember being insanely excited as a fan of his YouTube videos when he announced he was putting out his first EP on iTunes. Back when a YouTuber getting music on iTunes seemed like an accomplishment. I'm so happy he's had such success. This is another movie I wish I could have seen with Anthony, we listened to Bo Fo Sho about a million times back in the day.