Bo Burnham's impressive 'Eighth Grade' gets high marks for empathy
“Eighth Grade” - ★ ★ ★ ½
Not even Joseph Conrad had the courage to venture into that darkest of hearts: middle school.
Bo Burnham's “Eighth Grade,” however, plunges us into the day-to-day experience of 13-year-old Kayla Day (Elsie Fisher) with just as much intensity as a journey down the Congo. Every sling and arrow, in the mall food court or on Snapchat, is felt acutely. Whenever Kayla's crush Aiden (Luke Prael) steps in the room, the world turns slow-motion and the music thunders. End-of-the-year superlatives? The horror.
Such harrowing moments have long been stretched for their comedy or their torture, but rarely have they been rendered with such precision and empathy. Burnham's intimate, impressive directorial debut is armed not just with an understanding for the awkwardness of youth but with an anger at what social media and cellphones are doing to it.
The 27-year-old former YouTube sensation turned stand-up comedian turned feature filmmaker is an unlikely guide for such a crucible of adolescence. Burnham's comedy, while evolving, has typically been theatrically, even combatively brash. His rise was propelled by the technology he's now turning on.
Like Burnham did as a teenager, Kayla hosts a YouTube show, only nobody watches her earnest life advice. “The hard part about being yourself is that it's not easy,” she says into her bedroom camera before reminding viewers to hit “like.” Sweet, shy and acne-covered, Kayla lacks both an audience and friends. Only one of those matters.
Kayla tries, unconvincingly, to project a confident version of herself online while struggling through lonely days at school. Her loving single dad (an adorable Josh Hamilton) is seemingly the only one in her corner, and she mostly just sighs at him or tunes him out with earbuds.
From the start, we feel the unreasonable pressure put on Kayla by blissful Instagram accounts and savvier Twitter feeds. She spends much of her days and nights anxiously scrolling down screens, fueling her insecurity.
But she is gloriously plucky. When an already cringe-inducing birthday party sets up karaoke, we start covering our eyes for the certain embarrassment to come. But she goes for it. Sorry, Dwayne Johnson. Kayla is summer's most awe-inspiring hero.
Another movie might lead toward scenes of bullying. While there are confrontations, “Eighth Grade” is subtler and its focus more inward. There's the cool girl Kennedy (Catherine Oliviere) and an intimidating group of older kids, some nice, some not. But what Kayla most needs is to simply recognize, as her dad pleads, that she's “so cool.”
Fisher, who voiced Agnes in the “Despicable Me” movies, is extraordinary. “Eighth Grade” is a revelation of both a remarkably natural young performer and a clever, sensitive young filmmaker.
That parents should see “Eighth Grade” is a given, just as it that middle-school kids should, too. But would Kayla see “Eighth Grade”? She has her nose so firmly in her laptop and phone that I fear not. “Eighth Grade” is one more good reason to log off.
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Starring: Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton, Catherine Oliviere, Luke Prael
Directed by: Bo Burnham
Other: An A24 release. In limited release. Rated R for language and some sexual material. 94 minutes