I have loved everything I've seen Bo Burnham in ever since I've discovered his stand-up comedy and Zach Stone. So, I went to watch Eighth Grade with a total trust in whatever was going to happen but I sure did not expect the movie to be like this.
It's different from his previous work, but at the same time you can find the same endearing honesty. This movie touches on subjects like anxiety, social media, social expectations, teenage awkwardness, and more, with incredible accuracy.
I never realised how much I don't miss these years of my life until I watched Eighth Grade. The pool party was particularly funny because of how much I could relate to the horror.
The movie made me remember my own social awkwardness, my own difficulties to make friends, my uneasiness in front of the popular girls, my own hopes for the future, my refusal to communicate with my parents because "they just don't understand"...etc it really took me back and I was amazed that a movie could do that so well. It really is, for me, the best movie about adolescence and I would definitely recommend it.
Cinematography is beautiful and the soundtrack was surprising but in the best way. I've heard Anna Meredith's work again recently in Living With Yourself on Netflix and that made me happy.
This review is primarily a tool for collecting my own thoughts, though it would be a nice bonus effect if the text and resulting rating turned out to be helpful for anyone else.
The trailer for Eighth Grade preceded the showing of Won't You Be My Neighbor? I saw last month. I have a nephew who's entering eighth grade this year, and I thought we just had to see this movie together. Bo Burnham's name had also been floating around, mostly in reference to his work as a comedian, and I suppose that name recognition factored into my interest in the film too.
I hope Burnham's comedy is as entertaining as Eighth Grade's trailer—isn't it odd that I would recognize the name without having seen his work?—and the film's ratings soundly beat every other film my nephew was interested in going to see tonight. (I was surprised to see its scores exceed even those of The Incredibles 2, though I can understand the mediocre ratings of Rampage and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.) It seemed like an easy choice, based on audience reactions, and the large turnout at the cinema reinforced that feeling.
However, I'm not entirely satisfied with the experience.
From an artistic standpoint, I appreciated many elements of this film. The way its segments are punctuated by Kayla's videos is a neat narrative device—though sometimes it was frustrating how the audio track of her would play over muted footage of some other event, blocking out any other dialogue.¹ Throughout, the cinematography was well done. Shots were well composed, and it certainly never felt like we were looking at something unimportant (or missing something important). For technical reasons, though, I wish that Kayla hadn't broken her phone's screen so early on. Given how many times it's shown in place of spoken dialogue, it would have been nice to be able to read it more easily.
Content-wise, though, the film is… tame. Uncomfortable at times, but very tame. Quite predictable, too. For a comedy, there weren't actually that many jokes—and a film with this many awkward, uncomfortable scenes definitely needs jokes to lighten the mood. Burnham's use of slightly-dated slang and memes to make adults seem "out of touch" likely won't age very well. Same for the specific references to social media services like Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram. The demographics on those sites will change faster than any of us think they will, and leave this movie feeling much older than it really is in just a few years.²
Other reviewers here (so far, @jb4times4 and @nmahoney416) have called out the film as being extremely relatable. I suppose it is, in the way that any stand-up comedian's material is "relatable", but I wouldn't call the writing "amazing". There's a certain feeling of superficiality to the whole thing, and not just because it's a comedy. The movie felt almost like an impressionist painting of the Teenage Girl Experience, or even a caricature. As a twenty-something guy myself, I can't claim any more experience at "being a teenage girl" than Bo Burnham can, but I'm definitely interested in reactions from people who once were teenage girls. Preferably from my generation or younger, just because I think the gap in technology between my parents' generation and mine or my nephew's deeply affects the experience of growing up. Hopefully some of my friends have seen (or will see) Eighth Grade and I can ask for their opinions.³
Ultimately, I can't really put my finger on any single reason why Eighth Grade fell short of my expectations. But the trailer definitely wrote a check that the full film couldn't cash. I'd say 5.4/10, roughly, mostly because I don't want to round up to 6.
Instead of this, I wish we could have had a second season of Everything Sucks!…
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7014006/reviews
Review by ɥɐıɯǝɹǝɾBlockedParent2018-10-22T14:00:49Z
About the last week of middle school for a very socially awkward little girl (Kayla). Her relationship with her dad also plays a big role. Having two girls right around this age this hit really close to home, whoo boy this was a tough, but good, movie. So many "oh god, I can't watch" cringe moments... And yes, I cried (just a little).
I found myself really rooting for Kayla. She's the kind of character you can see bits and pieces of lots of kids in. Despite all her social awkwardness, you know she means well. And I loved her relationship with her dad. I thought it was portrayed incredibly and believably, with all it's own little awkward idiosyncrasies. Teenager daughters are their own brand of parenting fun...
And damn did Elsie Fisher do a good job as Kayla. I really hope to see more from her as she killed in this movie.
Being such a huge part of so many teens' lives now, "screens" are a major plot device and get a ton of focus. I thought the commentary on screen usage among teens was done well. Blatant at times, but there were a few really subtle touches I appreciated.
This isn't a "kids" movie, but for anyone wanting to watch this with their kid I'd note that there is one scene that might be pretty uncomfortable, even more so than the general uneasiness of the rest of the movie. Nothing super bad, just be warned, here's a very minor spoiler: she hears about "blowjobs" so she turns to the internet to do some research and gets predictable (hilarious) results. We watch a video with her.