Eighth Grade review – A test of endurance

For all its good intentions, this production, about severe teen angst, never gets out of first gear and meanders along at a steady pace without really engaging the intellect.

The story, written and directed by Bo Burnham, concerns a 13-year-old named Kayla, effectively played by a calm and vivid Elsie Fisher, who endures her last disastrous week at middle school before she begins high school.

The young teenager is an awkward loner who documents her days by making videos and giving her followers advice on life. But not having lived her life to the fullest and battling each day trying to negotiate a minefield of social challenges, Kayla is unable to articulate her inner thoughts.

She can barely string three words together to form a sentence, with “cool” and “awesome” her vocabulary lifelines.

Elsie Fisher as Kayla in Eighth Grade. Picture: A24

If any lesson is to be learnt here, it’s that spending all one’s time on cellphones and computers leaves one bereft of words and the art of communication.

Vulnerability and anxiety are emotions that have rarely been better captured than in the demeanour of this poor creature and, for this, director Burnham must be given credit.

At times, one cannot ignore the feeling of hopelessness that engulfs the character, an element accelerated by the tension inherent in the script.

Kayla’s single, well-meaning father (Josh Hamilton) doesn’t improve matters. It seems the mother left at some stage but the story fails to make this aspect clear.

What remains is a shell of a human being, anchored to her cellphone, attempting to communicate with a world which won’t listen.

Elsie Fisher as Kayla in Eighth Grade. Picture: A24

Her shyness is brought to the fore when she attempts to merge with her rude contemporaries at a swimming party. She is the “quiet” one at school and is even rewarded for this with a certificate at the end of the term.

Although sentiment and stereotypes abound, the movie is an endurance test that becomes more difficult to overcome the longer it progresses.

Info

Rating: ★★★☆☆
Cast: Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton, Catherine Oliviere, Daniel Zolghardi
Director: Bo Burnham
Classification: 13LS

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