If you're familiar with Bo Burnham's stand-up work, the genius of Eighth Grade, his critically acclaimed directorial debut, should come as no surprise. A former YouTuber and Vine star, Burnham's sense of humor is an acquired taste that exists in the blurry area between comedy and musical theater. I've seen both of Burnham's Netflix specials, and I walked away feeling fascinated, exhausted, and invigorated each time. His style includes jokes that are both clever and crass, sophomoric and sophisticated, a brilliant concoction of personal reflection and frantic comedic madness. Burnham dashes around the stage like he just drank a six-pack of Red Bulls, rattling off wild punchlines while injecting a sly analysis of very modern themes. In other words, watching a Burnham set is not like watching your average stand-up comic. He's a one-of-a-kind talent, maybe even a visionary.
Eighth Grade is a different side of Burnham, though it expands on many ideas he has explored in his prior work. Even as it functions as both a cringe comedy and a terrifying 21st century media study, this is ultimately an astute film about coming to terms with yourself, accepting the messiness of adolescence and the growing pains that come with it. We've seen this territory explored before, but never quite like this. Eighth Grade is borderline excruciating to watch, the kind of film that thrives on a number of awkward and agonizing situations. If it seems needlessly downbeat, it's not. These profoundly uncomfortable moments are in service of an honest and poignant chronicle of modern teenage life, made all the more sympathetic by Elsie Fisher's Oscar-worthy turn.
Fisher plays Kayla, a shy eighth grader struggling through the end of her tumultuous middle school years. Only two weeks remain before graduation, but that doesn't mean Kayla is out of the woods just yet. She's consumed by a world of technology, making YouTube videos about confidence and self-esteem even though she can't quite follow her own advice in real life. She wants to be friends with the cool girls, but there's an omnipresent distance between her and her classmates. While Kayla's amiable, loving single dad (Josh Hamilton) tries his best to understand, her crisis is totally foreign to him. As our young protagonist gets a taste of high school and the perils that come with it, Kayla will find herself- and maybe some life-long friends along the way.
That synopsis makes Eighth Grade sound like boilerplate coming-of-age stuff. Self-discovery, the challenges of not fitting in, the terrors of puberty- we've seen it all before. But I promise you, this one is different. Burnham's film distinguishes itself in a number of ways, consistently and quietly proving that it's not quite like any other teen movie in recent memory. The decision to tell a story about middle school is crucial. High school movies are everywhere; we live in a culture that glorifies and worships the American high school experience. From American Graffiti to John Hughes to last year's Lady Bird, there are a seemingly endless number of stories about the highs and lows of the culmination of adolescence.
Middle school is like the ugly step-sibling that nobody really wants to acknowledge. You're still a glorified kid at that point, even if everyone is warning you of the maturity that lies just around the corner. Those years are as formative as high school in a number of ways, but few filmmakers have been willing to explore any serious stories in that realm. Burnham dives right in, and he injects a sense of fear and a touch of hilariously dry humor into the middle school world. As someone who went to a small middle school with a tight-knit group of kids (many of whom I had known since 1st grade), I can't really directly relate to the 8th grade nightmare. But like every great coming-of-age story, Kayla's journey feels universal, rooted in rampant uncertainty and gradual confidence.
Eighth Grade is also a wonderfully intimate film. Burnham keeps the story locked into Kayla's orbit, never deviating from her perspective for even a second. As Kayla walks into a popular girl's house for a pool party, Burnham's camera follows closely, capturing her every move on the anxious walk to middle school hell. We're granted access to her most devastating moments and her greatest victories, no matter how big or how small. Oftentimes, this intimacy results in an uncomfortable feeling that is just pure, unadulterated torture. Watching Kayla in the back of a car with a manipulative high school boy is one of the most stomach-churning sequences I've seen this year, and it's mainly because of Burnham's unflinching approach to the material. Even by the standards of "realistic" teen movies, Eighth Grade goes to some harrowing and difficult places.
Burnham's meticulous, extremely personal direction leads to a wonderful achievement of composition, but his work with Fisher solidifies this as something unbelievably special. Together, Fisher and Burnham have created an unforgettable character, a fully-developed individual who would seem genuine and real if you bumped into her on the street. In the early scenes, we get such a good sense of Kayla's sweet personality that it's all the more painful to see her struggle, to watch her try to shape herself into something she's not. Burnham's film is built on a foundation of boundless empathy, and Fisher is the one who brings it all home. She's a dynamic and thrillingly talented actress, able to effectively bring every single one of Kayla's highs and lows to life.
In thinking about her performance, my mind drifts back to one moment in particular. Kayla finally feels enough courage to give a popular girl a piece of her mind, and when she does, she rattles off a dozen lines while keeping her eyes locked on the ground. Then, she walks away and smiles. It's such a brilliant, nuanced work, and it serves a summation of this character in general.
Burnham has also made the rare film about technology that doesn't thumb its nose at innovations. Instead, Eighth Grade serves as a careful assessment of how these rapid developments have changed the very fabric of growing up. It doesn't judge Kayla for her addiction to social media validation; the film just observes, studying how it all clashes over the course of her story. And it also keenly understands how it all moves so fast, to the point that current teenagers couldn't possibly comprehend the climate teenagers faced even a few years ago. In a sublime little scene, Kayla tells a group of high school kids that she got Snapchat in fifth grade. They're all shocked, but she doesn't know a life without it. Eighth Grade recognizes the terrible things that come with being online, and yet it also sees value in the way Kayla can express herself through these means, maybe even coming closer to personal authenticity.
Ultimately, this is one of the most confident and exciting debuts by a young director in recent years. While most debut projects find filmmakers searching for what they want to say and how they want to say it, Burnham has emerged with a strong and mature voice, armed with an uncanny knack for excellent characters and incisive thematic arcs. Eighth Grade is so good that the body of this review is missing even a brief mention of Josh Hamilton, who does heartwarming, high-caliber work as Kayla's amazing father. It's a film simply overflowing with riches.
With everything from Fisher's star turn to Anna Meredith's inventive score deserving of immense praise, Burnham has delivered an funny, grueling, and truly memorable portrait of modern girlhood. Eighth Grade is outstanding.
THE FINAL GRADE: A (9.5/10)
Images courtesy of A24
Eighth Grade is a different side of Burnham, though it expands on many ideas he has explored in his prior work. Even as it functions as both a cringe comedy and a terrifying 21st century media study, this is ultimately an astute film about coming to terms with yourself, accepting the messiness of adolescence and the growing pains that come with it. We've seen this territory explored before, but never quite like this. Eighth Grade is borderline excruciating to watch, the kind of film that thrives on a number of awkward and agonizing situations. If it seems needlessly downbeat, it's not. These profoundly uncomfortable moments are in service of an honest and poignant chronicle of modern teenage life, made all the more sympathetic by Elsie Fisher's Oscar-worthy turn.
Fisher plays Kayla, a shy eighth grader struggling through the end of her tumultuous middle school years. Only two weeks remain before graduation, but that doesn't mean Kayla is out of the woods just yet. She's consumed by a world of technology, making YouTube videos about confidence and self-esteem even though she can't quite follow her own advice in real life. She wants to be friends with the cool girls, but there's an omnipresent distance between her and her classmates. While Kayla's amiable, loving single dad (Josh Hamilton) tries his best to understand, her crisis is totally foreign to him. As our young protagonist gets a taste of high school and the perils that come with it, Kayla will find herself- and maybe some life-long friends along the way.
That synopsis makes Eighth Grade sound like boilerplate coming-of-age stuff. Self-discovery, the challenges of not fitting in, the terrors of puberty- we've seen it all before. But I promise you, this one is different. Burnham's film distinguishes itself in a number of ways, consistently and quietly proving that it's not quite like any other teen movie in recent memory. The decision to tell a story about middle school is crucial. High school movies are everywhere; we live in a culture that glorifies and worships the American high school experience. From American Graffiti to John Hughes to last year's Lady Bird, there are a seemingly endless number of stories about the highs and lows of the culmination of adolescence.
Middle school is like the ugly step-sibling that nobody really wants to acknowledge. You're still a glorified kid at that point, even if everyone is warning you of the maturity that lies just around the corner. Those years are as formative as high school in a number of ways, but few filmmakers have been willing to explore any serious stories in that realm. Burnham dives right in, and he injects a sense of fear and a touch of hilariously dry humor into the middle school world. As someone who went to a small middle school with a tight-knit group of kids (many of whom I had known since 1st grade), I can't really directly relate to the 8th grade nightmare. But like every great coming-of-age story, Kayla's journey feels universal, rooted in rampant uncertainty and gradual confidence.
Eighth Grade is also a wonderfully intimate film. Burnham keeps the story locked into Kayla's orbit, never deviating from her perspective for even a second. As Kayla walks into a popular girl's house for a pool party, Burnham's camera follows closely, capturing her every move on the anxious walk to middle school hell. We're granted access to her most devastating moments and her greatest victories, no matter how big or how small. Oftentimes, this intimacy results in an uncomfortable feeling that is just pure, unadulterated torture. Watching Kayla in the back of a car with a manipulative high school boy is one of the most stomach-churning sequences I've seen this year, and it's mainly because of Burnham's unflinching approach to the material. Even by the standards of "realistic" teen movies, Eighth Grade goes to some harrowing and difficult places.
Burnham's meticulous, extremely personal direction leads to a wonderful achievement of composition, but his work with Fisher solidifies this as something unbelievably special. Together, Fisher and Burnham have created an unforgettable character, a fully-developed individual who would seem genuine and real if you bumped into her on the street. In the early scenes, we get such a good sense of Kayla's sweet personality that it's all the more painful to see her struggle, to watch her try to shape herself into something she's not. Burnham's film is built on a foundation of boundless empathy, and Fisher is the one who brings it all home. She's a dynamic and thrillingly talented actress, able to effectively bring every single one of Kayla's highs and lows to life.
In thinking about her performance, my mind drifts back to one moment in particular. Kayla finally feels enough courage to give a popular girl a piece of her mind, and when she does, she rattles off a dozen lines while keeping her eyes locked on the ground. Then, she walks away and smiles. It's such a brilliant, nuanced work, and it serves a summation of this character in general.
Burnham has also made the rare film about technology that doesn't thumb its nose at innovations. Instead, Eighth Grade serves as a careful assessment of how these rapid developments have changed the very fabric of growing up. It doesn't judge Kayla for her addiction to social media validation; the film just observes, studying how it all clashes over the course of her story. And it also keenly understands how it all moves so fast, to the point that current teenagers couldn't possibly comprehend the climate teenagers faced even a few years ago. In a sublime little scene, Kayla tells a group of high school kids that she got Snapchat in fifth grade. They're all shocked, but she doesn't know a life without it. Eighth Grade recognizes the terrible things that come with being online, and yet it also sees value in the way Kayla can express herself through these means, maybe even coming closer to personal authenticity.
Ultimately, this is one of the most confident and exciting debuts by a young director in recent years. While most debut projects find filmmakers searching for what they want to say and how they want to say it, Burnham has emerged with a strong and mature voice, armed with an uncanny knack for excellent characters and incisive thematic arcs. Eighth Grade is so good that the body of this review is missing even a brief mention of Josh Hamilton, who does heartwarming, high-caliber work as Kayla's amazing father. It's a film simply overflowing with riches.
With everything from Fisher's star turn to Anna Meredith's inventive score deserving of immense praise, Burnham has delivered an funny, grueling, and truly memorable portrait of modern girlhood. Eighth Grade is outstanding.
THE FINAL GRADE: A (9.5/10)
Images courtesy of A24
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