Get to Class!

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By Tom Pacak

Who remembers eighth grade? I do (Puberty, recess, and trying to fit in.) My favorite memory of eighth grade was when my friends got suspended for throwing candy at people during a class trip. You couldn’t really have a judgment on the incident because my friends didn’t know any better we were kids. That’s how I see the adolescent characters in “Eighth Grade,” an honest and empathetic portrayal of going through eighth grade. We’ve all been through these phases and director Bo Burnham makes us observe without making judgment on these characters.

The film focuses on Kayla Day (Elsie Fisher), she’s finishing her final week of middle school. She has a YouTube channel called “Kayla’s Korner” where she talks about “being yourself” and “putting yourself out there” while ending every sentence with “like” and looking at her notes repeatedly. It’s clear that she doesn’t have any confidence and is shy due to these repeated errors. For the class awards, she is awarded the “Most Quiet” award, to her dismay. She uses this channel as a coping mechanism to give advice to others even though she struggles daily to take the advice she’s giving. 

Kayla is just trying to fit in, and so is everybody else. Her single father, Mark (Josh Hamilton), doesn’t know how to connect with her. Kayla escapes to her phone every time he tries to have a conversation with her. What makes this movie sad is how it perfectly captures how our generation is attached to technology. Every character in this film is glued to their device, that’s probably why they all have a hard time connecting with each other. Whether it’s the bratty popular girls Kayla tries to connect with or even Kayla lying in her bed just pointlessly scrolling. It’s not that any of these don’t want to connect they just don’t how.

Bo Burnham really knows how eighth graders talk and interact with each other. He knows that they say the word “like” every other word and they’re interactions with a crush and the popular kids are awkward. Kayla frequently stares at her crush, Aiden (Luke Prael), a popular kid who broke up with his girlfriend due to the lack of nude photos. One particular scene shows Kayla ignorantly googling “blow job” and practices on a banana (a food she hates). These moments feel realistic and definitely, something young ones go through. Even a moment where Kayla goes to a birthday party nervous and afraid feels like something that comes out of a horror film and real life.

What makes this movie scary is how grounded in reality it is. 13-year-olds play the young kids and actual high school kids play the high school kids. A lot of movies dealing with school lose their touch with reality when they cast older actors to play these roles. The actors playing the roles in “Eighth Grade” are probably going through the same phase their characters are.

This is a movie that should be seen by eighth graders going through this phase. I’m a huge critic when it comes to the MPAA giving R ratings to movies like this that could be helpful for young ones. It’s a movie that middle schoolers can relate to and should be watched with your parents to know that they are not alone. I saw a news article today that says that A24 will be giving free tickets for all ages to see “Eighth Grade.” I applaud A24 for standing up against the MPAA and giving young kids a movie they can relate to.


Rating: 3 stars out of 4



Note: Now Playing in Theaters

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