EIGHTH GRADE – Rated R – 1 hr. 33 mins
Director/Writer: Bo Burnham
Starring: Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton, Emily Robinson, Jake Ryan and Luke Prael
Embarking on the last week of her Eighth-Grade year, we meet Kayla (Elsie Fisher), sharing her very mature thoughts via her YouTube Channel, while anguishing to find where she truly fits in amongst her peers. And as we soon find too her father Mark (Josh Hamilton) wasn’t prepared for this last week of school either, as he tries to navigate the perils of raising a teenage girl, as they attempt to chart a course for the great unknown…. HIGH SCHOOL!!!
I give EIGHTH GRADE a rating between MUST SEE ON THE BIG SCREEN and WAIT AND CATCH THIS FILM ON DVD! Fisher is absolutely heart-warming to view, as she takes you right back into that awkward stage of life which we have all had to endure ~ with as much realism and cynicism as she can muster, all along the way. Hamilton is enjoyable to view too, as the father struggling to do what’s right, but not really having a clue what to do to help his daughter to the next stage of her life. I also enjoyed Burnham’s storyline throughout, as having lived the life he examines within in the frame of this film, and having lived it again as a parent of two daughters, there is much of the angst of eight grade that he doesn’t spill out on the screen. You will find yourself riding the joys, and heart aches, that we all had to face, before we took that giant leap from childhood to adulthood. EIGHTH GRADE even managed to bring a tear to my eye along the way…as these wonderful actors, and Burnham’s vision, brings you face to face with as genuine of a storyline as I have seen in quite some time…
Kathy Kaiser
MATINEE CHAT with Kathy Kaiser 