Eighth Grade (2018) * * *

Directed by:  Bo Burnham

Starring:  Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton, Emily Robinson, Luke Prael, Catherine Oliviere

With a documentary-like feel, Eighth Grade is an authentic, empathetic look at a 13-year-old girl about to graduate eighth grade and figuring out her footing in the dawning of her teen years.     Unlike when I was thirteen, Kayla (Fisher) has a phone to play with and look at when she is feeling uncomfortable or insecure about a situation.    She can drown out her father's questions about her day (which annoy her anyway) by simply plugging in ear buds.    But, her insecurities, fears, and trepidation about appearing at a friend's pool party are not unlike those suffered by teenagers since time immemorial.   

The technology may be different, but the feelings are those we can identify with.    Those who can safely say they didn't feel out of place or unsure of things at thirteen (or even any age) are either lying or simply chose to forget these uncomfortable emotions.    Eighth Grade opens with Kayla shooting a YouTube video for her channel which few people watch.    This does not dissuade her from discussing her views of the world to the camera for all to see.    She discusses being confident and life lessons as if she has mastered them already, but the Kayla we see in school is anything but confident.    With pimples popping up in her complexion, Kayla doesn't appear to have many friends and fewer prospects for any.    She longs to befriend the popular girl Kennedy (Oliviere) who barely acknowledges her and her male crush Aiden (Prael), who only shows interest in Kayla when she lies about having nude pictures she can text him.   

Kayla's father Mark (Hamilton) is loving and takes interest in her, although Kayla would like him to stay out of her business (not that she really has any).    She is at the age in which everything a parent does is considered embarrassing or intrusive.    Kayla is not at the stage in life in which she understands her father was once a teenager himself.     How could he possibly know how she feels?   (ha ha)   Their relationship is at the core of the movie and is handled with the complexity it deserves.

I have never seen any of the actors in Eighth Grade previously.    The performances are natural and unaffected.    We don't see histrionics or any singular scenes which showcase them as actors.    In keeping with the true-to-life feel of the movie, the actors seem more like real people being filmed for a documentary.    Because of this approach, Eighth Grade's dramatic arc only reaches so high.    It is a film which observes and is essentially without a plot.    Instead, it gives us a peek into what it feels like to be thirteen and allows us to understand Kayla.    I admit some sequences tend to languish without payoff, but once I understood the movie isn't about dramatic payoffs, then I was able to admire its sincerity and authenticity.