EIGHTH GRADE (2018, written & directed by Bo Burnham, starring Elsie Fisher)

yeah Josh that the high school girl was very nice was so great - as clemenza said, it was as if she were shadowing her future self.

Had Jason Reitman written or directed this, he would have turned the high school girl into a hypocrite.

David Edelstein's the only film critic I periodically check in with anymore--his very positive review:

http://www.vulture.com/2018/07/bo-burnham-eighth-grade-movie-review.html

He reminded of a couple of other things I liked...and a couple more I didn't.

I understand the movie not resonating with some people. Lady Bird, e.g., did not particularly resonate with me. But resonant or not, both are smart and sensitive movies that prioritize the POVs of their young, awkward protagonists in a way I respect.

Saw this with my 13-y-o son, I think he liked it but I liked it more than he did? A bit hard for me to watch as Kayla is surely meant to be the viewpoint character but very hard for me NOT to occupy the viewpoint of the dad.

Because I was watching it with my son I sort of wished there were one sort-of-OK boy in it. (I don't really think Gabe was a sort-of-OK boy.)

The way I knew this movie was good was that the parts of it that were objectively kind of on-the-nose (ending with the video to the high school self, the dad's speech) I totally bought.

My son and I both agreed it was very nicely handled that you could see somehow that the Spongebob was important but not why at first.

Gabe rules, he's blithely living all the self-confident talk-to-people true-to-yourself aphorisms from Kayla's youtubes

Gabe is a dork and not super great at listening/communicating but he's nice and wants to be friends and it seems like he'll turn out okay. Of course, he reminded me of me at that age so I might be biased.

xpost When she first took Spongebob out of the box and stared at it I thought it was because she recognized that she looked a little like Spongbob! Big blue eyes, sort of crooked teeth, spots, "yellow" hair/skin ... When they revealed what it was later it was another "aha!" moment for me.

That's an excellent read on Spongebob, Josh.

However I think it's nuts to describe this movie as "not a comedy'!

I didn't realize the shitty comedy songs I'd seen of Bo Burnham were from when he was 18, that makes it make monumentally more sense he could make this movie, I have to admit I too was like "seriously? THAT guy??"

I kinda feel like a party pooper, but I found this pretty mediocre. It was hard for me to watch it without thinking of similar recent movies that I liked a lot better--Lady Bird, obviously, but also the possibly-even-better The Edge of Seventeen--but even on its own it felt kind of thin. One quibble that will probably seem pedantic, but which I kept coming back to (and which is especially surprising considering the filmmaker's social media past): her YouTube videos look *nothing* like the way any of the videos I've seen produced by young people. Granted, my only experiences with this genre(?) are BookTube things, but these tend to be really energetically paced and quickly edited, not at all like the generally lo-fi and staid videos that Kayla produces. It could be argued that her videos reflect her personality, but I suspect that someone who makes these videos would be more tuned into/trying to mimic the (for the lack of a better term) YouTube aesthetic.

I did like her Diane Franklin-ish high school friend, and the final scene with Gabe ("I like all the sauces equally"). The movie could have used more of his character, especially.

That's fascinating because The Edge of Seventeen felt too Hollywood broad.

I guess its broad in that its aiming for certain comic and emotional points, but I thought it hit most of them. It wasn't as popular among critics as Lady Bird or Eighth Grade, both of which are more low-key in a way that I'm assuming strikes a lot of critics and viewers as more "authentic."

I've seen a lot of videos on YT that looked a lot like Kayla's.

But it's the "Gucci!" That got me! She seems way too aware for that. I think there was something that hinted that she was getting a little embarrassed by it as time passes but I'm not sure

The Edge of Seventeen also had a different look, a more MOR mis en scene. "Hollywood broad" is otm, and I think that's why it slipped by so many people who liked the more stylized and auteurist Lady Bird and Eighth Grade.

and its distribution was completely different - EO17 played at multiplexes, 8G and LB played art houses.

I saw Eighth Grade and Lady Bird in multiplexes

(RIP, Moviepass)

I rewatched bits of this movie before returning the disc to the library today, and I'll concede that the things I like in the movie are enough to push my feelings on it up from a mildly negative to a mildly positive. Part of my problem with the film that I am realizing just now is that most of the good stuff in the film is in its second half, so it feels a bit unevenly weighted and, as a result, poorly paced. That said, the father's speech still doesn't jerk my tears the way I think it was supposed to--I have the same reaction to the father's speech in CMBYN; Jennifer Garner's speech to her son in Love, Simon honestly moved me far more than either.

My favourite thing about the movie remains: I would be first in line from a sequel/spin-off about Gabe.

Anna Meredith made this movie.

i saw this and felt neither moved nor life-affirmed but it was enjoyable to see an 8th grader's mental state portrayed effectively in the modern era. i didn't relate to her youtubing or her relationship with her dad or virtually anything that made this movie good/life-affirming, but i did relate to the stifling pettiness of 8th grade, her documentation of her life via the time capsules, and that feeling that things are hopefully going to get better. things don't always get better but the optimism resonated with me. i thought her budding friendship with gabe was cute but also probably doomed. that was definitely realistic! i guess i enjoyed it? oh and that scene in the backseat of the car made me SO nervous. everything about that was very relatable.

Probably brought it up upthread but there are a handful of horrible things that seemed telegraphed to happen, from a school shooting to suicide to that back seat scene gone worse to the high school girl blowing her off and so on. And ... none of it happens. I've got to assume that was intentional, to underscore all these perpetual latent threats just lurking there at every turn.

and sometimes they do happen, either to the same person later when they aren't expecting it or to someone else. they just didn't happen to her that particular time. i'm not sure what this is supposed to signify or mean cinematically or narratively.

When I was in 8th grade I had the impression that every girl had her shit together and was happy

i thought this was a powerful film. as josh says, nothing that terrible happens (except the harassment in the car, although that could have gone far worse, but it's still incredibly painful to watch. it reminded me that life is painful.

i was impressed with elsie fisher's performance. the discomfort and self-consciousness was palpable.

we just saw this! excellent. as treesh was the last poster and my thoughts mirror his, i'll say treesh otm

i loved this

the awkwardness & false bravado felt so real at times i had to look away & just hear what was happening because it was so uncomfortable & familiar & gave me a lot of overwhelming feels

everything under the desk during the shooting drill & then her looking up oral video tutorials online & the banana...exaggerated but oh god, so familiar

and i’ve seen ppl elsewhere with the takeaway of how damaging social media is etc which sure i dont disagree, but it wasn’t that obvious for me? for me i saw the movie as a leveller, to remind us BEING A TEEN SUCKS IN EVERY DECADE because IT SUCKS

yes

i know we all know this but i just need to blarp more:

imo whatever media in your decade you engaged with as a teen, it always found a way to mine your anxiety & insecurity & make you think you had to be someone you could never be

and 100 years ago when there wasn’t media there was still class structure & materialism

being a teenager is like, idk, you are 100% exposed flesh & raw nerves, no protective layer of skin at all.
everything is abrasive. life is abrasive. ithe smallest innocuous things cause inner pain or anxiety & you legitimately doubt WHAT you are, forget about “your changing body” or whatever. but that too.
and ~everyone your age~ is existing in similar raw, exposed, anxious painful self-doubting ways.
existing ~against~ each other.
feeling WAY too much all the time.

it’s crazy when you think about it.

I just saw this today and realized i love Hal Hartley movies but hate every movie that reminds me of a Hal Hartley movie. I am pretty sure I hated this. But the main actress was good.

this was... fine

the dorko kid was great, even moreso his deleted scene doing magic

Yeah, pretty sure this was really terrible, but props that Bo Burnham got people to love it.

I was really expecting to hate this but it was fucking surprisingly good. Little heavy handed at points, sure, but I was legit struck by the aesthetic decisions. “Bo Burnham ~film auteur~” seemed like a comically outlandish concept, but damn, maybe he’s got it.

Lot of shots and music choices in this that felt really sharp.

yeah

this really did seem to get how the new generation live, for all its universal teenage appeal

Got me real choked up tbh.

That pool party scene with the Anna Meredith song was absolutely brilliant.

Oh!! We remembered it as Holly Herndon. Whoops. Great song/scene anyway

I watched this today and noticed that Lori Loughlin's daughter is the makeup youtuber in the opening credits

Her mother submitted a screen test that got her the part.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxMDlgFwNXg

excellent horror movie

anna meredith score was a delightful surprise

Watched this last night and otm it's a great horror movie, with some of the toughest scenes I can remember. We (stupidly?) watched it with our kids, 11 &13 and they both had to walk out at various points. For all its power though, I think it shat the bed a bit in the final 10 minutes or so: the various flails towards redemption (the YouTube sign off, the inexplicable far-sightedness of the flash-forward, the squawk at the 'bullies') and maybe even the dad cha, even if it did move me to tears. With the horror thing in mind, I do wonder if the shooter drill was a different kind of flash forward/wish fulfilment, but that might be a step too far.

Short version: I'd taught two year 9 classes that day (UK version of 8th grade) and have one in the house; ultimately, this made me feel closer to them and all the horrors they have to - and have left to - endure (and which they'll survive because, well, what else are you going to do?).

*dad chat, not dad cha, though with his character, him dancing round the fire would have worked just as well.

My kids were just comparing and contrasting their lockdown drills the other day.

We had a lockdown practise on Thursday. We sat under the desks in the dark for 10 minutes, then had to troop outside in the rain. The kids didn't take it remotely seriously.

I keep thinking about the dad character. I get that he was a cipher of sorts (pushed to the side of his own life, to paraphrase Larkin) and there to accentuate the totalising nature of adolescence, but did he need to be so empty? Which is to say, I think he'd have made an interesting character study. I suspect I'm pushing my own 'emptying out of middle age' anxieties onto Josh Hamilton/Bo Burnham but there we are.

Short version: I'd taught two year 9 classes that day (UK version of 8th grade) and have one in the house; ultimately, this made me feel closer to them and all the horrors they have to - and have left to - endure (and which they'll survive because, well, what else are you going to do?).

― Life is a meaningless nightmare of suffering...save string (Chinaski), Saturday, September 28, 2019 6:10 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

my cousin was a very depressed and very online eighth grader and although she was already aging out of it by the time i saw this it really hit me

I have friends trying to convince me that this Bo Burnham guy is great and that this Inside thing is good... What am I missing? Are my friends actually terrible and should I disown them?

eighth grade is a very good movie…. have almost negative interest in this special from what i’ve seen tho

I tried watching, gave up after like 10 mins. the hype/reception is absurd

Agreed. I liked Eighth Grade well enough, but the hype around this special is absolutely insane.