Eighth Grade Review

Writer and now director Bo Burnham takes on this funny, coming of age movie titled “Eighth Grade”. This film follows the introverted teen Kayla (Elsie Fisher) and her last week of grade eight. Eighth Grade shows Kayla struggle with the typical junior high problems including; puberty, boys, socializing, everything that every person deals with. I could personally relate to this film and more to Kayla herself because I struggled with it as well

Eighth Grade features a pretty small cast, but fortunately the two main stars have a bit of experience with them. Elsie Fisher has done some voice acting in the past and Josh Hamilton who plays Mark Day, has been acting for a long while. They both do an excellent job in their respective roles. Elsie Fisher is amazing at portraying a student in the eighth grade, from the everyday struggles, to living on the phone and of course, to not knowing how to properly use makeup.

It does help that Elsie is only 15 years of age at the current time. Josh Hamilton does an excellent job playing Kayla’s father by bringing the comedy to the film, portraying the goofy dad persona, but also knowing that he has to be serious when the time comes. This is showing how hard being a parent is and that even they don’t have all the answers.

I feel like this film does a good job showing most people’s junior high experience. However they do it in such a way, it appears slightly over the top. I can personally say that I dealt with similar problems, but nothing to that extent or that many issues, and believe me, I was not a “cool kid” in that grade. It’s like they took every possible thing and threw it in just to make a movie, which I know they had to; to actually make a film. However they dealt with it in a funny manner that kept the audience engaged.

The Conclusion

Eighth Grade does a fine job showing how technology has become such a big aspect of our everyday lives. Kayla makes YouTube vlogs about her struggles and how she deals them; it is probably the most annoying part of the film. This does a good showing how much growing up has changed, even just from when I was a kid. It is weird to see people who just can’t get off the phone, even when talking with others.

Eighth Grade is a funny, but awkwardly serious coming of age movie. The cast does a good job in it. Also the film touches on the problems kid face when they attend school, hopefully it might help some out eventually. It did touch on some issues I had growing up, but I am still not a huge fan of the film.

Eighth Grade Review at Theater with Standard Viewing
Screening Provided by Elevation Pictures

Rating Overall: 6.0