Originally written August 10, 2018

Eighth Grade is one of the best movies I’ve seen in years. I’ll be honest, in terms of movies that have deeply resonated with me, The Perks of Being A Wallflower has always been high on my list of favorites. It was so perfect at encapsulating my feelings and experiences at a very particular time in my life, and no movie has ever come close to capturing that emotion quite in the same way. Until now. Eighth Grade is one of the best movies that deals with its subject matter that I’ve ever seen, offering a really poignant and genuine take on what it’s like to be in that stage of your life.

Eighth Grade centers around Kayla Day, a girl who is finishing up her eighth grade year. Kayla makes inspirational videos that don’t get many views in her spare time, but in school she’s extremely quiet. She’s a real introvert that deals with anxiety, so she has trouble socializing without feeling like people think she’s weird. The movie is your basic coming-of-age kind of story, but the devil is in the details with these kinds of movies, and so Eighth Grade excels so much in its execution. Giving away that kind of stuff spoils the movie, especially since the movie’s best moments lie in its second half, so I won’t go into it much past that.

The reason I went to see this movie is because it’s the directorial debut of comedian Bo Burnham, who has always been one of my favorite stand-up comedians. So, I was really excited to see what he was going to come up with for a movie. Considering his comedy background, I did expect Eighth Grade to be much more comedy-oriented than it actually is. Sure, it does have its comedic moments, but it’s rarely ever laugh-out-loud funny, if at all. However, this isn’t a sleight against the movie, since it feels like it wasn’t the intention. The movie is a lot more sincere in tone than you would expect. That’s not a bad thing, just know what you’re getting into if you’re planning on seeing the movie for the same reasons I was.

The best word I can use to describe it is “pure.” The movie is so genuine in its nature, and it makes the emotions of the movie feel much more real. While the direction is definitely fantastic, I think the movie’s character mainly comes from its lead, Elsie Fisher. She is absolutely perfect in her role as Kayla, and she gives the movie that same resonant feeling that I described from Perks. She is immediately relateable, and even when she’s being bratty it’s hard not to feel for her. I cared about her so much by the end of the movie, which is why the hard-hitting moments in the second half are so effective.

All in all, this movie just became an instant classic for me. It’s the kind of movie that I can almost guarantee will stay with me for years to come. Like I said, I haven’t had this particular genre of movies hit me as hard as Eighth Grade did in years. While the movie is definitely a much more modern take on what it’s like to be this age, I couldn’t help but reminisce on how it felt to be that age while watching it. Anyone that was a bit quieter and felt out of place and awkward at this age will almost certainly relate to Kayla. While I did have some VERY minor gripes with the movie (such as just feeling like there wasn’t a satisfying conclusion to certain plot lines), these gripes are overrode so much by the positive feelings the movie left me that I really don’t hold it against the movie whatsoever. The movie feels like a masterpiece to me, and so that’s how I’m going to remember it. I don’t know if Bo Burnham plans on continuing in a film career, but if he does then I think that he has real potential to have a great career in the industry. This is one hell of a debut, as it’s a movie that has immediately entered into my favorite movies of all time.

5/5