Eighth Grade

My wife and I watched this movie on DVD from our public library. We enjoyed it, and while watching it I gave thanks that my 5 were teenagers before the era of smartphones and social media.

This was written and directed by Bo Burnham, himself not far out of his teen years, and as he says in the DVD extra he was inspired by his own experiences as a teenager.

Most teenage angst movies are about high school, this one instead focuses on a 13-yr-old who is just finishing up 8th grade and anticipating high school. Elsie Fisher is just so authentic as the kid, Kayla Day. She is usually pretty quiet, rarely putting herself "out there", but she makes and posts what might be considered "self help" videos for fellow teens. The irony is that she rarely follows her own advice. But she is trying, and she does get to the point of realizing that sometimes you just have to "fake it until you make it."

Overall it is a good and entertaining take on growing up with some elements that are not often done in these kinds of movies. Also Josh Hamilton is good as the single dad, Mark Day, who tries really hard to establish meaningful communication with his daughter, and eventually it works.