Review of Eighth Grade (2018) by Dana F — 31 Dec 2018

I have never been a big fan of the teen coming-of-age movie genre because in my experience, they never get it right. Even at their most sincere, they are always coated with a glossy Hollywood veneer (i.

E. casting the gorgeous 22-year-old Emma Watson as a high school outcast in "The Perks of Being a Wallflower"). I'm sick to death of hearing about films that allegedly "capture the essence of the modern teenage experience" or some such bullshit.

But now, here I am saying it, and I'm for real. This is, by a country mile, the most pure, authentic, and believable depiction of a teenager ever put to film. The first thing they got right is the casting - they cast an actual 14-year-old to play a 14-year-old! Ingenious!! Who would have ever thought to make such an unprecedented choice.

And not only is she the right age, she LOOKS like she's the right age. She has acne! And crooked teeth! And she's a little dumpy! She's... normal! The icing on the cake is that Elsie Fisher is also a great actress and perfectly embodies this role.

Her defining characteristic is that she is quiet, so she has to make it all work with her expressions and body language, and she just kills it. As the title suggests, the movie follows eighth-grader Kayla through the final days of middle-school.

.. and that's about it. It doesn't have a strong narrative, but this movie is more about the experience than the story. It's a little bit of a slow burn, even at 90 minutes, but if you commit to it you can easily get absorbed into her world.

This character is a completely genuine and relatable protagonist - she is cripplingly shy and socially awkward, but not so socially awkward that she doesn't understand how awkward she is. She is more comfortable getting lost in the world of Snapchat and Youtube than the real world, but she longs for "normal" interactions with other kids her age.

What's more, she makes concentrated efforts to change her circumstances. She makes you cringe for her, but she is my hero. This film is the directorial debut of comedian Bo Burnham, but this is anything but a comedy - you might get a few chuckles here and there but this is a full-blooded indie drama.

It was clearly a labor of love for him, and I loved that he chose to focus on this particularly trying age, because uggh, eighth grade was just the fucking WORST. It's no fun being taken back to that age, but this film is so touching and sweet and real, and the message is so overwhelmingly positive, it's absolutely worth it.

I would recommend it for both adults and teens, but especially for tweens. For that age group, this is the right movie at the right time.