Review of Eighth Grade (2018) by Viniciusbrito — 01 Jan 2019

"You can't be brave without being scared".

Kayla is in her last year of the middle school, and she is known as been a very introvert person that doesn't have many friends, spend a lot of time on internet and not actually having real relationship, and than she decide that she wants things to be different and face some challenges trying to find some experiences, doing that she also put her vlogs on internet looking foward to give people some advices. Directed and written by Bo Burnham.

The great about this movie is that it teaches you, didactically in a very natural way, a lot about living the life, from the perpesctive of a teenager, wich for a lot of us, still have situations that are really close to what they go through. In this story we can get perfectly how it is to be like one of them, in the minimum details, the subtleties that the character of Kayla is nothing but perfect, wich is a lot of points for the director, Bo Burnham and the actress Elsie Fisher, the way that she tries to speak to others and fail, the way that she is always looking down to speak to almost everyone, the shy, she been somewhere with people talking, even know that she got invited to do it so, but she just don't feel comfortable on it, all of that is so relatable and real, simple and real like few things in Hollywood are.

The lessons from Kayla's videos are: 1st - Be yourself: Of course, we gotta be ourselves and accpet that all the time to be happy, the situation is that sometimes we even think that we are someone that we actually aren't, and that happens with Kayla there. Another lesson would be: Putting yourself out there: and also, of course, you gotta expose who you are, talk to people, and that is so important, because met new people are essential for life, and you never know who you gonna met, and that is perfectly showed in this film. Confident, is important for you to be confident to all of the things in life can go well, the movie is good in letting us know that is normal and good to be afraid, you just gotta go on.

The fact that you really care for the main character in here is essential, and you can see that she is learning a lot and risking a lot, doing different things that she isn't usual to, and you all the time is cheering for her, and the movie is also real in the sense that the things that happens, actually are true and somethings go well and some doesn't, that every action ends up in a consequence, and some of these consequences can be horrible, no one is perfect, the movie pretty good in showing us that, nothing is perfect and there a lot of scary things around there. Letting us know that the worshiped people aren't necessary the better people to be with, there are people that can be way more fun and aren't so hyped by others, always try the different.

In acting there are some really good content in here, Elsie Fisher with only fifteen years old is already giving some really good work out there, she is great in this movie, she could interpret the shy person perfectly, you can totally see in her the lack of confidence in some moments and the need to get friends and to make contact, but just being unable to do it so, the anguish is felt in her, she can also be very kind, and have different layers in voice and in other aspects, she is great. Josh Hamilton is also great, overall in the movie he did worked exactly how a father would, accepting the childern's moment, but always with a bigger tie of concern, and I totally believed in him, in his concern, and he also have a really good monologue at the very ending, really touching. Jake Ryan is really nice in this movie, he portrays the perfect match for Elsie's character, he is kind and fun.

The soundtrack is on point, it does have a hope moment when things are getting better for the character, and the lack of track in some moments I also found pretty well used, it helped to give the perfect situation for the moment.

The photography is also good, there are some plans that can really help us in understand the scene. The movie works with the technologies that are used by the people in that age really well, and the photography works quite well in this aspect, there are one or other moment where it may get to polluted. There are one or another moment where things get in slow motion and not really pretty in what they do, I found some of these goofy, but overall it worked.

Eighth grade is a fantastic movie, one of the most real movies from the year that can have wonderful teaches to people that are in that age range and also for everybody else, because knowing ourselves is a thing for life, we are always changing and always gotta be aware of what is going on, being respectful and understandable or apprehensible.