During her last week of eighth grade, thirteen-year old Kayla Day (Elsie Fisher) experiences the growing pains of being a teenager as she struggles to make friends, communicate with her father, and find her own voice.
Middle school contained some of the worst experiences of my life. I can agree that much with Bo Burnham’s directorial debut, Eighth Grade. As well as Burnham and his great cast follow through with the film’s promise, thought, it’s a piece that’s left wanting for something.
Long bouts of uncut tracking shots and awkward silence give Eighth Grade a squeamish presence as Elsie Fisher gives a true-to-life performance as the socially awkward Kayla. The tension these many, many moments create is brutally palpable, particularly during a closing scene and another early on in the film as Kayla makes her way across waves of her preppier peers in bathing suits towards a swimming pool.
It’s a telling sequence about Kayla’s psyche, but plenty of other scenes start to feel like the footage is being stretched thin in order to reach a solid cinematic runtime. The screenplay wanders about with nothing more than the intent of capturing different snapshots from Kayla’s school, social, and home lives, an inspiration that has been proven to work in other similar coming-of-age movies. Strong performances from Fisher, her onscreen father, Josh Hamilton (who deserves more leading roles after this charming performance), and Emily Robinson’s high school mentor character, Olivia, make many scenes relatable and uncomfortably raw.
As a result, Eighth Grade achieves a very strong sense of realism, with a big, fat “so, what?” at the end. Kids wander the middle school’s halls with their heads jammed into their phones, ask each other for crude (questionably included) sexual favors, and live vicariously online. So, what? Last year’s Lady Bird functioned similarly with its nonlinear narrative, but Greta Gerwig was able to develop a remarkable tale through Lady Bird and rhyme the character’s journey with artistry to true life. Though Kayla does come of age, Burnham explores more of the “what?” than the “who?” and the “why?”
Much like a teenager during the time period, Eighth Grade can often be found up its own butt. In the end, Bo Burnham and his talented cast create an accurate portrait of a time not quite past childhood lacking in thematic staying power.
Grade: B
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