Eighth Grade (2018)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Absolutely Fantastic

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

When I went into the theater to see this film, I had no idea I was about to re-experience a forgotten time when I was submerged in a world of fear and insecurity. Bo Burnham took a trip to my subconscious and came back with pages of material. While I never tried to offer people advice in YouTube videos as the main character does, I strongly relate to the character in the following ways:A fear of being labeled as quiet (anxious people just want to fit in). Highly agreeable to the point of ridiculousness.Writing out bullet points of how to improvesocially Attempting to say or do anything at parties while having crippling fearsWhile some of the feelings in the film are universal, it got all the specific fears of anxious kids down to a t. Something I have learned since the struggle of middle school is that some kids are genetically more sensitive than others, and this can translate to anxiety as a person gets older. If you have a child who notices and feels more than his or her peers like the girl in the film, research high sensitivity and see if they possibly have it. It can do wonders for self-esteem to reframe the past knowing they have a unique trait.

Like Jordan Peele and John Krasinski before him, Bo Burnham creates a film that has no business being as great as it was. Eighth Grade is exactly the kind of film John Hughes would make if he were alive today. The actors really shine here. I can't think of even one line that wasn't delivered perfectly, which is even more impressive when you consider the fact that there's only one major adult character, the rest are all kids. Can we attribute that to Burnham's direction or are these actors really that great? Who cares? Neither answer changes the fact that Kayla is more relatable than just about any protagonist in 2018 film as a whole. Equally as impressive is the technical quality of Eighth Grade, which contains some of the best cinematography I've seen all year. Burnham and cinematographer Andrew Wehde seem to have had a lot of fun with this film, throwing in long zooms akin to 70s horror films, dramatic superimposing footage, and a nice mix of dolly work and handheld. The electronica music also fits perfectly with the tone of this film, which is elated and hilarious at its height and absolutely soul crushing at its lowest. All in all, during my screening of Eighth Grade I delighted in and suffered through my fair share of flashbacks to middle school despite having graduated six years before this film is set, which (to me) demonstrates the timelessness and accuracy of the writing and the film as a whole. After discussing this movie with a few friends I decided that I could not find one thing I didn't like about this movie. This is the closest thing I've seen to a perfect movie in a long, long time.

An interesting study of how technology affects the social aspects of the transition to adulthood. My criticism is that it was a lottle too depressing right through 2/3 rds of the movie, then the uplifting end was not sufficiently restorative.

Eight Grade is a film that is in touch with what life as an eighth grader moreso than perhaps any I've seen. The film does a wonderful job at poking fun at the middle school experience, while making sure not to make light of the trials Ellie has to overcome. It's funny and heartbreaking, and some of the scenes depicting the awkwardness inherent in adolescence had many in the audience (including myself) squirming in our seats. A treat.