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@averagejoereviews
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As I look back at my time in ‘eighth grade’ (it’s Year 9 in the UK where I live), I often think of myself as a shy, fairly quiet kid that came alive when placed with the right people. These are supposedly how Kayla, our title character, feels, though admittedly she hasn’t met the right people yet. However, watching Eighth Grade I still struggled to relate to broader aspects of it, perhaps its because I’m a guy and there is obviously a difference in growing up between guys and girls. But then I thought, no, I still faced the same pressures she did in the film, but I don’t remember any of those awkward conversations where you have nothing to say. That’s my problem with the film, it should be a film which I can relate to, at the time it came out I was 13 myself, however, I seriously struggled to see my past self reflected in any of the characters.
The film begins with a youtube video from Kayla (Elsie Fisher) in which she gives advice to her audience about topics such as “Being Yourself” and “Putting Yourself Out There”. In typical 13-year-old youtuber fashion this is done with several ‘ums’ and has ‘like’ after nearly every word, even the dreaded look to the script as she delivers her advice to her non-existent audience. Trust me, it sucks, I’ve been there. This is a very good opening, and one of my favourite aspects of the film - the use of Kayla’s youtube videos is at times masterful by writer-director Bo Burnham, the message they convey is perfectly clear - Kayla has all the right answers and advice, she just needs to use them herself if she wants to be the popular girl she craves to be. In these videos Kayla has airbrushed out her acne and put on eyeliner as a way to give herself confidence that she can’t have at school, and this part is so real to many young girls, who will put swathes of filters and makeup on just so that they can have that ‘Instagram look’ - its fine, I’m not judging, but I just think it’s interesting how accurate this part was in contrast to other elements later in the film.
Kayla lives at home with her dad (Josh Hamilton), who struggles to stay connected with his daughter, made even harder by the fact that there is no mum in the picture. Kayla is, like most teens determined to spend as little time with her parents as possible, shutting her dad out and keeping her EarPods in at the dinner table on Friday night. All of his praises and compliments are abhorrent to Kayla, who sees them as condescending and babyish - she’d much rather spend time scrolling through Instagram and seeing what her classmates have been up to, than talk with her boring old dad about her boring day at middle school.
Not that she’ll be having boring days at middle school for much longer - Kayla’s moving up in the world, high school is fast approaching and she’s just got a week left of the hellhole that is middle school. That means one more week to stare at her confident crush Aiden, the sleepy-eyed kid that everyone thought was super cool when in reality he’s kind of a dick. It also means she’s only got one more week of being envious of Kennedy, the Queen Bee of middle school - who reluctantly invites Kayla to her birthday party. Kayla reluctantly attends said birthday party and it delivers perhaps the film’s best scene, as Kayla, a bag of nerves, shuffles towards the big glass sliding door in her bright green swimsuit to join the kids outside. They’re all running and swimming around having a good time, but Kayla can’t, too many people she’s thinking, what will I say to them, what if they stare at me. Most kids have experienced something similar in their lives and it is truly the epitome of horror, never had 13-year-old me been more scared than when I had to go and meet a group of my classmates outside of school. Fittingly, Burnham evokes a sense of horror about the scene and in that moment you are genuinely terrified for Kayla and worried about how she’ll interact with her classmates.
Later in the film we see Kayla and classmates on a “shadow” day, where all the graduating middle school kids go and get buddied up with a high schooler for a day as they’re shown around. Nothing like this exists to my knowledge in the UK, however, I seriously doubt that they would make a bunch of 13 year olds put their hands on the shoulders of the person in front as they walk through a corridor, that’s the kind of thing 6 year olds do here. At the shadow day Kayla meets Olivia and they quickly hit it off, whilst I liked the character of Olivia and she was acted well the problem I had here was that Olivia does not act like anyone my age. Nobody my age is that welcoming to a younger year, nobody my age is inviting said person out with them, the entire portrayal of her and her friend group feels off and it irked me.
What also irked me was some of the editing used by Bo Burnham. At times the film feels weirdly cut, jumping between scenes and you often have to take a few moments to pick up the in-between moments that you don’t see. The film would have been far better had these been added, the film already has a short runtime, just adding perhaps 10 seconds more in these sequences would have added greater depth and meant that I wasn’t rushing to catch back up every few minutes. I’d also like to expand on the awkwardly scripted conversations, nobody I’ve known has ever talked like that. I understand you want to portray Kayla and some of the others as unsociable and nervous, but this is an extreme portrayal of that. It’s the lengthily pauses or waffling about “also wearing a shirt” that did my head in, never once, no matter who I’ve spoken to, whether it be a girl I’m crushing hard on or one of the popular boys have I ever had a conversation like that.
However, the poor editing and at times poor dialogue is made a whole lot better by the performance of Elsie Fisher, who you will feel every step of the way. In roles like these you normally see 20-somethings casted but here we see an actual 13-year-old (at the time of filming) take centre stage. Lets just say this casting gamble works extremely well - Fisher is immense, drawing you in so that by the end you’ll just want to reach out for her and give her a big hug. At times she is rude and abrasive but you’ll still be on her side because more than anything else Fisher’s performance makes her seem as though you’re watching a friend go through all these troubles. Quite ironic given Kayla’s lack of friends don’t you think.
Generally, I get a lot of enjoyment out of coming-of-age films, largely because I can relate to some of the characters, however with Eighth Grade I struggled to do so. It’s a film that wants to be taken seriously without ever really going further into serious issues, leaving plenty of uncomfortable pauses if you’re bold enough to watch with the hated parents but little to talk about afterwards. For large parts it prioritises style over substance, but then when you consider Elsie Fisher’s perfect performance and the fluid modern soundtrack you realise that perhaps there is something to it after all. Uncertain is how I’d describe Kayla as a character and uncertain is how I’d describe my feelings towards the film, the only thing I can really take away from it is that Elsie Fisher will be a future Oscar winner. “Gucci”
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