Stars: Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton, Emily Robinson, Jake Ryan, Luke Prael
Director: Bo Burnham
Oscar History: Fisher landed a Golden Globe nod for her work here, but it didn't quite take off with Oscar.
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars
(Spoilers Ahead) The movie centers around Kayla, a girl just about to finish middle school and enter high school, who is a largely invisible student raised by a doting, dorky father named Mark (Hamilton), as her mother had abandoned them years earlier. Kayla has no real friends, and as a result most of her internal identity seems to be formed through social media. She has a YouTube channel, where she puts together basic (but perhaps meaningful for a 14-year-old) advice videos where she implores those around her to have self-confidence and pride even though she cannot muster this herself. She has a crush on a boy in her class named Aiden (Prael), who is cute but also a bit of a jackass as we learn as the film progresses (we learn about halfway through the film that he's only interested in Kayla when she reveals that she'll send him dirty photos). The film shows her slowly realizing that she can be who she is and still love herself, and find some sort of self-worth even in an existence where she doesn't feel appreciated or adored.
The film is heartbreaking, and occasionally devastating to watch. Kayla, unlike most high school movies of this nature, doesn't come with a best friend at the beginning of the film that she can rely upon, another dork that is her steady rock-Kayla's only real constant source of support is her father, who struggles to understand why this little girl he loves so much doesn't have more friends and is sullen & distant to him. Burnham's choice to put Kayla by herself makes the film feel a bit more alien than you'd expect from such a picture (though he indulges other tropes like her finding that unlikely friend in the end and her telling off the pretty, popular girl at the graduation), but it's a smart choice. You spend much of the picture worrying about Kayla, as her lonely existence makes you concerned that this is a girl that could struggle with suicide or self-harm. Burnham litters the film with allusions to the callousness of modern life for teenagers (the school shooting drills, the intense need for validation on social media), but perhaps most daunting is how intensely lonely Kayla is, how she tries desperately to fit in with almost anyone around her in hopes that they can make her feel "normal," which is clearly her goal in life.
This makes for some sharp observations in the back half of the movie, when Kayla befriends an older girl named Olivia (Robinson), whom she hangs out with at a mall, and the truly disgusting scene afterwards where Kayla has an interaction with an older boy who pressures her to become sexual with him. It's a creepy scene not only because it feels too plucked out of reality (I instantly thought of several guys I graduated with who were not popular in our grade and would try and date younger girls since girls their own age wouldn't date them), but also the way that Kayla is taught to react. She says no, but spends the rest of the car ride apologizing to him even though he's the one being a creep. She even begs him not to tell their mutual friend, assuming what she did was wrong despite the fact that he was the one in the wrong. Burnham's script is so smart in its observations of what it's like to be a 21st century teenager, always expected to act the same way as the sunny, happy figures you see in YouTube videos (the Zoella's, the Bethany Mota's, etc) and not prepared to handle the darker side of a world on-display. Burnham's care with his writing, putting little nuggets that might not be noticeable to younger audiences (the way Kennedy's mom is clearly thirsty for Kayla's dad), is so choice and specific it's hard not to be impressed.
That smart script wouldn't work without two very strong lead performers, and Burnham got them in Fisher and Hamilton. Fisher is naturalistic, to the point where you'll be forgiven for assuming that she is playing herself (I'm assuming she isn't, though I admittedly haven't seen interviews with her yet). Her Kayla is invisible but doesn't understand why she is, and doesn't deduce ways to change others' perceptions of her. The notes of glee when she finally gets a tinge of happiness in her life (look at the scene where she prays to God that he make tomorrow good for her, even if she has to have a bunch of awful days afterward) are exact and marvelous-a lesser actor would have indulged in articulate histrionics that Kayla isn't capable of, and bravo to Fisher for resisting such temptations. Hamilton may be even better as her dad, trying to find a way to understand his daughter. Naturally handsome, it's possible he doesn't relate to this girl because he was the kind of guy the popular girls went for (like I said, the Kennedy's mom bit is choice), but that struggle to relate to the most important person in his life, who doesn't want to know him, is something you rarely see in a father-daughter relationship. Hamilton has this marvelous monologue at the end of the film where he has to try and convince his daughter that she doesn't make him sad; this has to be a parent's worst nightmare, seeing this person who makes your heart brim with love admit that she doesn't view herself that way. Hamilton's impassioned, bold pleas that she understand that she's the best thing that ever happened to him should be corny, but thanks to his groundwork aren't. Cinema is brimming with depictions of a parent loving their child unconditionally, but few can show it as a confusing emotion, something that overwhelms you and is difficult to explain. Hamilton achieves that late in the picture, and it's spectacular.
Overall, Eighth Grade is a well-made movie with smart writing and a routine plot. Though it'll be claimed as thought-provoking by critics who are too far-removed from Kayla's culture that they don't understand, say, the "no one uses Facebook" comments from Kennedy to her mother, it's in reality just a well-made high school movie. That's not an insult, as those are hard to pull off, and I'm thrilled to see what comes next from Burnham, Fisher, and Hamilton.
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