Growing up is tough. No one gave us a rule book or a how-to guide perfectly suited for our individuality. It can be quite challenging, and rightfully so. We all have our own paths, journeys, and outcomes that make us all unique. But we all grow up, one way or another. As a Toys-R-Us kid myself, I shunned the idea while I sang their catchy theme song. All throughout my 34 years I’ve rebelled against it at every turn, but there’s just no stopping the inevitable. This is why adults should see Eighth Grade.
While we can preserve our child-like wonder, sense of imagination and humor, we can’t just press rewind and do it all over again. But a good coming-of-age story can really make us feel like as if it were possible. As if we were really back in our adolescent bodies with our whole lives ahead of us. But A24’s Eighth Grade makes us stop and think, why would we even want to?
Intro – A24
I went into this movie based on the quality of movies that A24 has been releasing thus far. The first films I personally saw from the distribution company were Spring Breakers & The Witch. Each film made me happy that a company was ballsy enough to break the mold of conventional Hollywood fluff, which was certainly an inspiration. Now, with Jonah Hill’s upcoming film Mid 90’s, and the Spring Breakers esq Never Going Back starring Maia Mitchell, it’s clear that the company is specializing in edgy coming of age stories.
I had no idea what I was in store for, other than a fun time. I wasn’t familiar with the film’s writer/director Bo Burnham, but he has a laundry list of accomplishments leading up to this film. Most of them being the mastery of social media domains, which is not surprisingly elevating artists to opportunity’s of expression in other medium’s such as film and TV. Social Media is also one of the film’s core thematic elements. Which also isn’t surprising, because social media is a core thematic element in modern society.
What Eighth Grade was like for me.
Before I get into actually reviewing the film, I feel like it’d be a good idea to look back on my own experiences in that last faithful year of middle school (I urge you to do so as well). It sucked. Under more normal adolescent circumstances, it probably would have been cool. But in the years leading up to Eighth Grade, I had already switched schools numerous times. All those schools were dramatically different, and the culture shock of each one helped ingrain in me a certain sense of social anxiety.
Social media was yet to be a thing, and I certainly didn’t have a cell phone till I hit my junior year in High School. I might have had a beeper, but my Mom was the only one beeping me back then. It was my first year back in public school after attending a series of religious private schools with only a quarter of the students. So It was overwhelming. I was lucky to have befriended the class clown Jason, who helped me navigate some of the tougher times. But a majority of the time, I felt alone in my own world of pre-teen angst, not unlike the Films protagonist Kayla.
Review
The greatest thing about this film is it’s authenticity. It’s attention to detail, and it’s fearlessness to touch on real-life situations without sugar-coating them or pandering. The mood of the movie moves from bright, colorful, and optimistic, to dark, depressing, and no-holds barred vulnerability. It’s rated R, which seems out of place for a movie based on Eighth Graders. But none of it’s adult content is for shock value or lewdness, but simply an honest reflection of a child’s journey into adulthood.
Kayla, the films protagonist, lives in a single-parent household with her father Mark. Mark is the type of parent who’s struggling to connect to his daughter, and thinks that by being “cool” and not enforcing much discipline, that she’ll like him. The opposite thing happens. She speaks to him with blatant disrespect and thinks he’s a huge dweeb. Which he pretty much is. The father-daughter dynamic here is so spot on, and in my opinion, one of the root causes of Kayla’s awkwardness.
Kayla doesn’t have any real friends. She’s struggling to improve herself, and determined to become a more confident, socially adjusted teenager. She starts a Youtube channel which serves as an advice column for teens like herself. The posts she makes are so genuine, heartwarming, and funny, and also serve as a narration to the issues she faces in the film.
The scenes in the film do a fantastic job of eliciting emotion. The music, lighting, camera angles, and acting all combine to get us in our feelings. There’s no shortage of laughs, cries, and cringes to be had here. And yes, I did happen to cry a couple times as I watched. I can admit it. That’s just what good movies do to me ok!!
Why Adults Should see Eighth Grade
Overall, I think it’s important as adult’s to never lose sight of our childhoods. Too many of us get stuck in our generation’s. We can’t relate to the prior or former, resulting in a certain alienation of understanding. This can make us judgmental and critical, two very unattractive qualities. Watching this film gives us a true empathetical view point on what it’s like to be in middle school. In turn, this can help us relate to our children, our nieces, nephews, and cousins, and also: our long lost childhood selves. The part’s of us we may have forgotten, or may have banished to darker places in our subconscious.
This is not a movie about time-travel, but that’s exactly what it can do for adults. Take us back in time. A more innocent time to where adulthood began to rear it’s ugly head. It you enjoy a good coming of age story, this is one for the ages. I highly recommend it.