8th Grade

I respected Bo Burnham's Eighth Grade a great deal. It's very good. But it's also so uncomfortable, and often very difficult to watch.

What is unique and fascinating about Eighth Grade is that it is told from the eighth-grader's point of view, and it avoids following a parent's own confusion about how to cope with the young person. In this way, Eighth Grade is willing to go to places that most films that pretend to be about growing up or adolescence (ahem – Boyhood) are unwilling to go. This is not a film that is actually about what a young person's parents are going through.

But, as I say, watching an eighth grade girl try to cope with being cool and figuring out who she is and liking boys and trying to fit in and working on being friendlier is really awkward and difficult, and I had trouble enjoying this film simply because it made me uncomfortable for much of its running time. This is a good thing, of course, and it is certainly interesting. Even better, Eighth Grade also packs a powerful emotional punch at its end. Overall, however, I can't say I totally connected with it.