Before Starting High School, a Young Girl Strives to be More Confident

Elsie Fisher in "Eighth Grade"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

In the first 10 minutes of standup comedian/writer-director Bo Burnham’s comedy-drama, "Eighth Grade” (his feature-film directorial debut), there's a brief scene with his main character, Kayla Day (Elsie Fisher, in her breakout role), attending band practice at school.  Her introverted persona is emphasized with her being in the back, seeming to be out of sight from everyone.  However, being a cymbal player, she gets to crash them on occasion.  She's shy, but wants to be noticed.  Thus begins an endearing coming-of-age story that will amaze you with its sincerity.

The story follows Kayla, who's had a difficult time in eighth grade.  She's in her last days of the school year, and during this time, she will try her best to get over her insecurities and become the optimistic individual that she always wanted to be.

Fisher provides a performance that's so natural that it’s not close-to-life, but life itself, and we know that her performance is going to be exceptional right from the opening scene.  Here, it's a few minutes of a laptop screen filling up the cinema screen as Kayla makes a YouTube video for her channel, with Kayla facing the audience.  During this scene, we can see that Fisher has an instinctive feel for her character, exemplifying all of Kayla’s anxiety, while also showing us glimmers of the extrovert within her that's trying to get out.  Fisher captures the uncertainties that her character's experiencing, and later on, we see a willingness in her to explore her confidence, and Fisher shows the hunger in her character's eyes to be more outgoing and accepted.  Kayla might not be a character who’s used to attention, but this performance will call a lot of it to Fisher, and she deserves it.

Josh Hamilton's performance as Kayla's father isn't that of a stereotypical parent that you'd see in other movies that are centered on teenagers, but is instead one that brings humor and sentiment to the everyday interactions between him and his daughter.  You see how hard he tries to bond with Kayla, but the disconnect between them is apparent, making his attempts to reach her both witty and heartbreaking, and his work here feels as genuine as Fisher's.  Near the end of the film, there's a father-daughter scene where he delivers a heartfelt monologue to Kayla, and because of the compassion within this dialogue and quiet emotion that occurs between the two characters, this scene could go down as one of the best in 2018 cinema.

Burnham’s screenplay has an abundance of honesty concerning the middle-school experience and what it means to grow up during that time.  The scenes that he brings to realization offer plenty of opportunities for the viewers to connect with Kayla, and it’s impossible to watch this movie without seeing yourself in any of the situations in which Kayla finds herself.  Besides constructing these scenes that make you laugh, cry, or cringe with their realness, Burnham also manages to imbue them with dialogue that sounds like how these characters would talk in real life and doesn’t have a hint of artificiality. 

With the help of cinematography by Andrew Wehde, Burnham's visuals are able to capture whatever Elsie's feeling at any moment.  This is most-notable in a scene where Kayla's on the phone with a high-school student, named Olivia (Emily Robinson), whom she shadowed.  The two have already forged a connection, and you can hear the excitement in Kayla's voice as she's speaking with Olivia because she now has someone with whom she can talk.  As she's talking, Kayla's pacing back and forth in her room, doing a lot of rambling in the conversation, and the camera moves back and forth with her in a close-up the whole time, allowing us to feel Kayla’s anxiety through the constant movement of the camera, just as Kayla's experiencing it when she's talking to Olivia.  Up until this point, we've never seen her carry on a conversation like this, and it's a scene that's joyous because of Kayla having a new friend, but also nerve-wrecking because, since she's testing her new social skills, we're not sure how it's going to turn out. 

It's appropriate to have a standup comedian make a film that focuses on the concept of growing up, as they’re performers who have a talent for offering insight into relatable topics, and Burnham’s able to provide an in-depth look into Kayla's experiences, capturing all of the awkwardness and apprehension that permeates her life at school and at home.  With “Eighth Grade,” Burnham presents us with a special moviegoing experience because Kayla’s journey isn’t just personal for her, but it will be personal for you, as well. 

Final grade: A