Eighth Grade

I'm a sucker for coming-of-age stories, but they definitely can be tropey. Even some of the best coming-of-age movies can depend on the cliches of the genre to fuel their script. The Breakfast Club is a classic, but it wouldn't work without characters drawn (at first, at least) as broad stereotypes, a geek-to-chic transformation for one of the girls, and not one but TWO opposite-sides-of-the-tracks romance arcs. Eighth Grade avoids a lot of the tropes using a few simple tricks. First, it limits the scope of the story in both time and cast. It all takes place over the span of a week, the last week of young Kayla's time in eighth grade. It also limits the focus of the story to Kayla. This isn't like Fast Times, where we see a bunch of characters intertwine and bounce off each other but also go their separate ways, or Breakfast Club, where it's a small core group and what happens when they're forced to collide. This is Kayla's story and Kayla's alone. Another trick is the time it takes place. We're used to seeing older teenagers or even young adults in these stories. This is about that awkward, sweaty, maladjusted time in everyone's life. Middle school is a grotesque, awkward, middle ground of life; you're desperately trying to shed the shackles of childhood, but you're not anywhere near ready or prepared for what older teenagerhood is all about. It's the tentative first steps of discovery of self, which are the hardest ones. None of this is original, but the last trick Eighth Grade gets is putting it in modern day, among kids who have grown up in a world where omnipresent internet and social media has always been there. For Gen-X and before, it's something that came up as we were older, and we integrated it into our lives, but it's still kind of a side thing. For today's kids, one's social media presence is part of the daily fabric of life, and that informs a lot of Kayla's arc in Eighth Grade. She is introverted. She has no self-confidence to speak of. No friends that we see, no boyfriend, and a social media life that boils down to liking and commenting on everything she sees in the hopes of being noticed. She even has a YouTube channel where she makes videos dispensing life advice to teens about confidence, inner strength, and so on (although she herself doesn't -- can't -- follow her own advice), and it her views are in the single digits, if she's lucky. There is a lot of honesty to this movie, and a lot of beauty in that honesty. It becomes easy to root for Kayla to break out of her shell and try to live up to the image she's trying to craft online, because the movie is filmed and scripted in such a way that you'll recall all those terrible years. You felt this uncomfortable at one point, so you know how she feels. When she takes a risk and it fails, you'll still feel happy that she did it. It's also not afraid to get serious and not treat it as a plot device. Fast Times used Jennifer Jason Leigh's character as a punching bag for the negative side of sex, and treats Phoebe Cates as an object of lustful worship. Kayla is put in a terrible situation, and thankfully it doesn't go where you'll fear it does, but it still hurts, and it goes back to how social media has warped reality in the minds of kids too young to have a full grasp on the world around them. The aftermath is handled very delicately and realistically, and the denouement, where there's a coming-to-terms with her single dad, and then a moment of personal triumph, will make you smile. And thankfully, the movie doesn't wrap up everything in a bow; there's a guy she has a crush on in school, and we don't get closure. There's how she handles the popular girl, or how the traumatic event happens with a new group of friends and the fallout from that, and all of that is left open, because closing all that isn't integral to the story of Kayla. All of it is dependent on Elsie Fisher's portrayal of Kayla, and she is wonderful. Kayla is given terrible fragility and a desperation to fit in somewhere, anywhere. But when she shows flashes of inner strength, it is so genuine and heartwarming. It is an award-worthy performance. I will say the movie has one flaw that keeps it from the full boat, and it's unfortunate. The movie's messages are something every kid should hear, but the movie is kind of dependent on having felt those eighth grade jitters. Without that first-hand knowledge, I think something might be lost in the translation. Plus, many kids brush off the "there's others going through it too that are just like you" preface to life advice. So while this movie has wonderful intentions, the most important audience that needs to see this movie is also the least likely to get something out of it. I don't know that there's a way to make it work for fourteen year olds without coming off as pandering ... and maybe playing to that age wasn't the intention. I don't know. I just know this movie has some deep themes kids need to see and hear and feel, and I'm not sure if the format of this movie would help it land. That aside, wow. A strong recommendation.