Eighth Grade. (15.)
Directed by Bo Burnham.
Starring Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton, Emily Robinson, Jake Ryan, Daniel Zolghadri and Fred Hechinger. 94 mins
“Excruciating” is not the kind of quote film companies are looking for to put on their posters, but if you are attempting to sell a film that attempts to be an honest look at the life of a teenager, especially a teenager stuck in the hideous reality game show of the US education system, it's really the only adjective that matters. In the old days there used to be such things as blackboards and if you dragged your nails down one you could replicate the experience of being Kayla Day (Fisher), an acned, slightly chubby, friendless and awkward would be Vlogger trying to make out that her life is normal as she goes through her last week of middle school.
Kayla makes inspirational videos of herself giving advice and personal philosophy that nobody Likes or Subscribes to and gets voted Most Quiet in the end of year Superlatives. (What kind of educational sadist ever came up with that idea?) She says that she is anxious all the time and compares her life to constantly waiting nervously in the queue to go on a rollercoaster and never getting onto the ride.
The film is cringe comedy taken to extremes. It is genuinely painful to see her trapped between unfeeling fellow students and the world of social media. The humour is rarely cruel but is very often too wrenching to really enjoy. First time director Burnham ramps up the discomfort by choosing unflattering camera angles and blasting out the music at uncomfortably loud volumes.
It's an admirable piece of filmmaking, but for much of its length, I wasn't sure it was actually enjoyable. What makes ultimately it rather wonderful is the central performance by Elsie Fisher, (she was the voice of the little girl Anes in the first two Despicable Me films) who inhabits the character so fully you do forget its acting. She never goes for easy laughs or easy sympathy. Somewhere near the end, Slight Spoiler, the film finds a way to give her some consolation, some happiness, if only in having her realises that life won't always be like this and it allows you to leave the theatre feelings elated because maybe just maybe, all the pain will be worthwhile.
Directed by Bo Burnham.
Starring Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton, Emily Robinson, Jake Ryan, Daniel Zolghadri and Fred Hechinger. 94 mins
“Excruciating” is not the kind of quote film companies are looking for to put on their posters, but if you are attempting to sell a film that attempts to be an honest look at the life of a teenager, especially a teenager stuck in the hideous reality game show of the US education system, it's really the only adjective that matters. In the old days there used to be such things as blackboards and if you dragged your nails down one you could replicate the experience of being Kayla Day (Fisher), an acned, slightly chubby, friendless and awkward would be Vlogger trying to make out that her life is normal as she goes through her last week of middle school.
Kayla makes inspirational videos of herself giving advice and personal philosophy that nobody Likes or Subscribes to and gets voted Most Quiet in the end of year Superlatives. (What kind of educational sadist ever came up with that idea?) She says that she is anxious all the time and compares her life to constantly waiting nervously in the queue to go on a rollercoaster and never getting onto the ride.
The film is cringe comedy taken to extremes. It is genuinely painful to see her trapped between unfeeling fellow students and the world of social media. The humour is rarely cruel but is very often too wrenching to really enjoy. First time director Burnham ramps up the discomfort by choosing unflattering camera angles and blasting out the music at uncomfortably loud volumes.
It's an admirable piece of filmmaking, but for much of its length, I wasn't sure it was actually enjoyable. What makes ultimately it rather wonderful is the central performance by Elsie Fisher, (she was the voice of the little girl Anes in the first two Despicable Me films) who inhabits the character so fully you do forget its acting. She never goes for easy laughs or easy sympathy. Somewhere near the end, Slight Spoiler, the film finds a way to give her some consolation, some happiness, if only in having her realises that life won't always be like this and it allows you to leave the theatre feelings elated because maybe just maybe, all the pain will be worthwhile.
