As a massive fan of comedian Bo Burnham, I was ecstatic to find out that he would be writing and directing his own movie. Burnham’s directorial debut, titled Eighth Grade, follows Kayla (Elsie Fisher, who you may recognize as the voice of Agnes in Despicable Me) as she begins the transformative period between eighth grade and the ever-daunting high school. Desperate for the approval of her peers, Kayla struggles to fit in while staying true to her own values. Her polite, feel-good attitude doesn’t mesh with the popular cliques, evident in the opening scene when Kayla uploads a tutorial on how to be yourself to her not-so-viral YouTube channel. This scene undoubtedly comes from Bo Burnham’s early days struggling to get views on his comedy videos and songs website. His personal connection to the characters and their plight continues from there. It’s easy for filmmakers to fall into the trap of trying to appeal to a younger audience and coming across as out-of-touch, but the film does an outstanding job of portraying a believable group of kids that teenagers can relate to, for better or for worse.
This coming-of-age piece embraces all the awkwardness that will surely hit a little too close to home with this generation of high schoolers; they will find themselves loathing nearly every character in the same way that we all look back on our younger, more obnoxious selves. Some scenes are unbearably cringe-worthy, bordering on unwatchable. Believe me, I say this as a compliment. Sure, it can be hard to watch, but I think it’s important, for high schoolers especially, to self-reflect and think about why these moments illicit such a personal and guttural reaction. Put simply, eighth grade is an awkward phase for everyone. We haven’t quite grown into ourselves both physically and socially, yet some still get the delusion that they have reached the top of the food chain at the age of 14. Those inside this cutthroat social hellscape often can’t see past the finish line – to high school and beyond when people start to mature and all of the social rules get rewritten. Thus, things we now see as inconsequential, an eighth grader might see as a monumental hurdle. The film brilliantly communicates not only the social pressure that eighth graders, specifically young women, must endure, but also that the problems are never permanent. Things get better, and we always have people who understand, so long as we have the wherewithal to look for them in the right places. Teens and pre-teens currently grappling with similar social dilemmas as Kayla would do well to see this movie.
Unfortunately, many teenagers don’t have the opportunity see Eighth Grade given its R-rating; the film features five utterances of explicit language as well as sexual conversations, which are more than enough to fit the MPAA’s R-rating. One could easily say that Eighth Grade must be inappropriate for thirteen and fourteen-year-olds since the MPAA says so, but it’s important to understand that such profanity is accurate to the teenage experience. While teenagers can sometimes be obscene–more obscene than five expletives and one sexual conversation, in fact–so there’s no reason those eighth graders, the people that would get the most out of the movie, should be barred from viewing.
