In his function movie directorial debut, comic Bo Burnham deftly encapsulates the awkwardness, angst, self-loathing and reinvention {that a} teenage woman goes by way of on the cusp of highschool. Given that the 27-year-old stand-up comedian achieved fame as an adolescent himself by way of YouTube by riffing on his insecurities, he’s uniquely succesful because the movie’s author and director to inform the story of Kayla, an anxious woman navigating the ultimate days of her eighth grade yr, regardless of making a protagonist w feminine as a substitute of male.

Like Burnham did greater than a decade in the past, 13-year-old Kayla turns to YouTube to precise herself, although she makes recommendation vlogs through which she pretends to have all of it collectively. In actuality, Kayla acts sullen and silent round her single father and her friends at college, finishing up most of her interactions along with her classmates on Instagram and Twitter. Her YouTube movies are a intelligent narrative software that present perception into her internal hopes and desires, very like an aspirational on-line diary.

One of Eighth Grade‘s biggest triumphs is in its realism. Played with charm and delightful nuance by Elsie Fisher, Kayla doesn’t communicate a single line that isn’t peppered with “umm,” “like” or “whatever.” Her posture and gestures talk how uncomfortable she is in her personal pores and skin. She has zits that she hides underneath make-up and Snapchat filters. Her makes an attempt at depth in her movies are adorably off the mark, similar to her recommendation that, “The hard part of being yourself is that it’s not easy.”

Burnham’s consideration to element helps weave a 2018-specific but universally relatable picture of teendom. Kayla stays up late scrolling by way of Buzzfeed quizzes and slime movies, has a Hamilton calendar and Justin Bieber poster on her wall, and indicators off her movies with the slang time period “gucci.” Her center faculty intercourse ed video consists of an actress saying studying about puberty is “gonna be lit.” The reference is likely to be of the now, however the feeling it conveys, of adults awkwardly appropriating slang for their very own agenda, resonates it doesn’t matter what period you got here of age in.

Eighth Grade‘s unique skillfulness in communicating Kayla’s internal life is usually due to the movie’s sound and music groups. The three beeps of a Mac laptop computer’s Photobooth software precede every of Kayla’s vlog monologues. Enya’s “Orinoco Flow” gives a poignant soundtrack to Kayla escaping into the net world on her cellphone late at evening. The rating swelling to dramatic highs then abruptly stopping creates lots of the movie’s laugh-out-loud moments and mirrors the emotional rollercoaster that’s puberty. When Kayla attends a pool get together, she pauses simply inside a sliding glass door, nervously watching the scene exterior whereas a Jaws-like theme performs. She lastly reaches for the deal with and the music cuts out proper because the door sticks, ruining her cinematic act of bravery.

Kayla will get the possibility to hang around with some highschool youngsters on the mall, and one in every of them feedback that children Kayla’s age are “wired differently” as a result of they started interacting with social media at such a younger age. While Kayla does spend a majority of the movie within the glow of her iPhone display, Eighth Grade illustrates that as a lot as issues are totally different for the present tech-emersed technology of kids, their emotional evolution stays the identical. Kayla should nonetheless navigate judgmental queen bees, predatory widespread boys, clueless lecturers and overprotective dad and mom on her technique to coming into her personal. For anybody who’s ever been an eighth grader, Kayla’s quiet journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance is encouraging and edifying.