August 6, 2018 4 min to read

Eighth Grade

Bo Burnham is 27, and he's already made a beautiful film wise beyond its years. Parents and Hollywood executives, I hope you were taking notes.

by Zach Saul

After seeing Eighth Grade, a couple of women have asked me “How the hell does Bo Burnham understand eighth grade girls so well?” Bo Burnham said in an interview that he watched thousands of videos online of eighth graders and the boys talked about Fortnite, and the girls talked about their souls. Eighth Grade, is a brilliant exploration of identity in the internet era, and what eighth graders may say out loud might be different from what’s in their social feed.

The biggest triumph, is Eighth Grade’s understanding of what the internet actually means to kids, and how frustrating the way society talks about generation gaps can be. I think it’s incredibly challenging for most adults who aren’t Millennials (with some exceptions) to say anything meaningful or insightful about the internet, because they didn’t grow up with it. Burnham’s age (27) really shows in this movie, and Kayla’s character illuminates the positive and negative aspects of social media. The internet is not a hopeless parasite turning all Millennials into zombies, but it’s also not always an echochamber for kindness and love (as we find out). Similar to the way writing in a journal when your angry or sad is therapeutic, talking online offers Kayla an opportunity to express parts of herself that don’t necessarily fit into her school persona. The confident, online Kayla tells her 3 subscribers who she really is, and offers advice that’s secretly for herself. She offers her unfiltered thoughts and advice in part because she faces no consequences, and won’t have to bear the weight of that expectation. The way Burnham’s camera enlarged Fisher’s face during the opening and closing monologues reminded me a lot of Catholic confessions, and how someone might project their hopes and dreams into a two minute, consequence-free interaction with a priest. That’s the paradoxical promise the internet makes to Millennials: it’s a place to reinvent yourself free of judgment or shame, but it’s also a place where your involuntarily subjected to other people’s reinventions of themselves.

Eighth Grade also understands that kids hate it when adults pander to them, especially about the internet. Kayla is smarter than her opening monologue leads you to believe, and when the principal steps down and does the Cam Newton Dab or when Kennedy’s mom tells her to invite Kayla on Facebook, her bullshit alarm sounds immediately. Kayla’s character is a portrait of a girl raised in the social-media-era are fishing for authenticity as opposed to compliments, and it’s the moments when the adults in her life (her father included) stop pandering to her that she rises to the occasion.

Burnham’s movie doesn’t just nail the trials and tribulations of the Eighth Grade, it talks really intelligently about introversion, more than just about any move I’ve seen this decade. Quietness is a social stain that kids (and perplexingly adults too) place on each other in order to accuse each other of being disengaged. Kayla’s independence, willpower, and thoughtfulness are misconstrued time and time again for shyness and lack of confidence. While anxiety was certainly an dark cloud obscuring her experiences, in her words “confidence is a choice”, and once she made on her own on numerous occasions. More than Kayla would care to admit, status and social pressure dictate her behaviors during her weak moments instead of what she actually wants.

What makes Eighth Grade special is that Burnham gets all the little, minute details right. Where most movies would have shown fake text messages on screen, Burnham insisted that a member of his production staff text Elsie Fischer so we could see her face reflecting on the computer screen as she surfed the web. Where most movies would have licensed some early 2000’s Avril Lavigne songs for their soundtrack, Burnham gets classically trained Scottish composer Anna Meredith to create a breathtaking and grandiose score. Where most movies would have given their 15-year-old leads eloquent soliloquies to read for their on screen monologues, Burnham shows you how eighth graders actually speak — likes, ums, fucks, blowjobs, and all.

The Good: A 27-year-old comedian made my favorite movie of 2018 to date, and the lead was a 15-year-old. Congratulations to the movie-going public, who get to watch Burnham and Elsie Fischer for the next decade (I hope) on-screen makings gems like Eighth Grade.

The Bad: I don’t have anything negative to say about Eighth Grade aside from the fact that the “coming of age dramedy” is a crowded shelf. I will however take advantage of this section to throw shade at the MPAA for giving Eighth Grade an R rating. Eighth graders are not allowed to see Eighth Grade without a parent or guardian, despite this being a movie they desperately need. Need I remind everyone that JAWS is rated PG??? Shame on you MPAA!