Elsie Fisher plays 13-year-old Kayla Day who is about to graduate from Eighth Grade. Director and screenwriter Bo Burnham captures the angst of Eighth Grade, both for Kayla and the other Eighth Graders. We see a group completely in the thrall of Social Media. Much of this movie consists of Kayla on her iPhone or laptop. All the the social interactions are herky-jerky.
Everyone, even the adults (and especially Kayla’s bumbling but good-hearted father played well by Josh Hamilton) constantly confronts the awkwardness of conversation. Texting is so much easier! Eighth Grade piles painful situation upon painful situation on poor Kayla and her father. But, High School beckons with its own troubling problems. You can see why teenage drug addiction and teen suicide are increasing given the anxiety and stresses young people have to deal with today. Kayla offers a measure of Hope. What are your memories of Eighth Grade? GRADE: B+
The movies been getting good reviews but I haven’t seen it yet. Saw Black Klansman sunday. Liked it but not as much as the critics. Thought it a little heavy handed at times.
My memories of 8th grade are very vague. I played basketball but wasn’t very good at it. I was tall-six foot by 8th grade and was rather awkward and uncoordinated. I think I mostly read a lot. Not much in the way of entertainment to walk to. I discovered girls but was too shy to have a girlfriend.
Steve, I did a lot of reading in Eighth Grade, too.
Sincw this more than 60 years ago my memories are a bit hazy …
I was no longer interested in school at this age, like Latin and the other crap we were tought – sarted reading all kinds of books that I could lay my hands on. Our teachers and the whole system were still influenced by Nazi memories – I called them Clerical Fascists. So I only got a “second prize” at the end of the school year (instead of being the “Primus”), my performance in languages, science and math were still very good however so I recovered. My friends and I just ignored our teachers and the whole system – I remember we decided to take a walk together along the Old Town Wasll, talking about anything instead of going to church (once a week all pupils werte supposed to do this) and our principal was very angry at first – but gave up soon, because we were his best pupils! 🙂
Just earlier this summer I met many old school friends and we talked and laughed again at those times.
Here you find pictures of the old town (over 700 years …) that I grew up in:
https://www.alamy.de/fotos-bilder/horb-am-neckar.html
Sorry for those spelling errors – do’t have a spell checker for Englsih right now – and I’m known to be lazy … 🙂
Wolf, I’m a terrible speller. Only the spell checker makes this blog intelligible!
Wolf, it looks like you and your old school friends were having fun back then!
Not my greatest year of my life. It was 1970 and I turned 13 (my 13th birthday was the day Janis Joplin died…the things we remember). I was living in Georgia, it was the first year of school integration, and there was a lot of public turmoil in addition to standard teenage drama. But at least our every word or action was not captured for posterity via social media. I would not want to be a teenager today. Things no longer get lost down the memory hole.
Deb, EIGHTH GRADE shows the dangers of life on Social Media. You’re right: in this Media Age nothing gets forgotten. Photos and video and texts stay on the Internet forever.
It gets forgotten if you don’t email or Tweet or Facebook, etc. it! Speak face to face. If someone else shares it, then I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to be a teen these days!
Rick, watching the movie showing the life of students in Eighth Grade was one of the most uncomfortable experiences I’ve experienced.
Eighth grade? Wouldn’t go back there if you beat me with a stick.
Jerry, my fondest memory of Eighth Grade was reading ACE Doubles in Study Hall. The teacher proctoring the Study Hall saw me reading (while the other kids were busy shoot spitballs, etc.) and said, “I have a stack of Science Fiction magazines. Would you like them?” I eagerly agreed and the next day the teacher brought me a shopping bag full of SF magazines: AMAZING, FANTASTIC, IF, etc. from the 1950s! I was thrilled!
Great! I wish I had teachers like that.
I really do want to see this after reading about it. But now, my memories of eighth grade? There are none! I skipped it. We had a thing in NYC back then (early 1960s) called the SP. If you made it – I always tested well, so I did – you basically did the three years of work (7th, 8th, and 9th grades) in two (7th and 9th). Schools were overcrowded with baby boomers and this was another way of moving us along. Academically, I did fine in 7th grade and great in 9th, but being a year younger than normal (I graduated high school at 16) didn’t help me socially.
Jeff, I always knew you were ahead of your time! EIGHTH GRADE is rated “R” so most Eighth Graders–who should see this movie–won’t.
I just looked it up. SP stood for “Special Progress,” apparently. I don’t think I ever knew that.
Jeff, I had enough credits by 12th Grade to skip my Senior Year and go straight to College. Some of my classmates did…with mixed results. One became a doctor, another became a lawyer (Harvard!), and another dropped out after one semester (drove a cab for a while and then turned to drugs).
This would have been in ’58, when I was 14, and it was a pretty significant year. I’d been a big reader for years, but this was the year I discovered SF and it would make up the major part of my reading for the next four years. Then I discovered crime novels, and they took over most of my reading time. But I returned to SF off and on through the end of the 70s, when I mostly abandoned it for mysteries, horror, and mainstream fiction.
Michael, I think our reading preferences become stronger by Eighth Grade. I was reading every ACE Double I could get my hands on back then. Science Fiction and Fantasy magazines were scooped up, too! I didn’t get into mysteries until 10th Grade. I binged on Agatha Christie, The Saint, and “carter brown.” A year later, I was reading Mike Shayne DELL paperbacks, Frank Kane, and Shell Scott.
I was very much like Elsie. Overshadowed by a precocious girlfriend who looked just like Sandra Dee. My advice is to choose your friends carefully.
Patti, you are so right! “Friends” could help you cope with Eighth Grade…or lead you down the path of Despair!
Back in 1958, things were simpler. I was 13/14. I had good grades, and I was swimming competitively every weekend and working out four weekdays, so not a ton of time. I also had a lot of chores (we had a many-acre avocado ranch) so there was always mowing, trimming, picking, maintenance, plus cleaning my room and all that stuff. I sure didn’t have a girlfriend, or go out on dates or any of that.
Reading? Of course everyone else is way ahead of me. I guess I was reading the Winston SF books, and the Hardy Boys and some other SF and YA series, Tom Swift Jr. and Chip Hilton, maybe. I’m not sure. Maybe I’d already read that and was reading Tom Sawyer and stuff like that. Not sure.
Rick, I didn’t start keeping track of my reading with a Reading Diary until I went to College. Later, I upgraded from a notebook to a database. I wish I’d kept track of my reading in Junior High and High School.
I heard Burnham and Fisher being interviewed on Sirius. What in the world would kids do today without their phones???
The movie sounds intriguing but I’m a LONG way from 8th grade. Not my happiest school years.
They would have to interact person-to-person, like we did. Mostly I think smart phones are the work of the Devil.
Rick, I think smartphones can handicap social interactions. Diane and I see it every time we eat out at a restaurant. People are busy texting and ignoring the people across the table from them! Diane leaves her iPhone home.
If I went to a restaurant with someone who put his/her smartphone on the table I’d excuse myself and leave…
Btw in our favourite bar in Tübingen (which I’ve been visiting now for more than 50 years smartphones and computers are generally frowned upon!
And it’s become a standard joke to ask the proprietor:
When will we have WLAN here?
And he always answers:
Only over my dead body …
He’s a real character, well loved, and he switched from one of the big breweries to a small local one – and he doesn’t sell any Coca Cola or Nestle products!
Wolf, if you visit the U.S. you’ll see smartphones everywhere. Younger people are addicted to their phones. My brother, who teaches Physical Therapy at a local College, has his students put their cell phones on a table in the front of the classroom when they enter the room. Otherwise, the students will play with their phones during the class. I see France has banned smartphones from school grounds for students age 3 to 15!
Beth, EIGHTH GRADE realistically shows what kids face today. It’s Reality Orientation! You and Joe would find this movie intriguing. Diane and I are still talking about it even though we saw it two weeks ago!
I spent the first half of eighth grade at Warwick Junior High in Newport News, Virginia! I loved it! I spent the second half of eighth grade at Lakeland Junior High in Peekskill, New York! I hated it! I started first grade when I was five so by the time I hit puberty I was way behind most of my peers, a skinny awkward kid among a mob of junior Mafia wannabes!
Bob, my Eighth Grade class consisted of 400 students. We were divided in 9th Grade into two groups: the “smart” kids were sent to the High School (that was me) and the “challenged” kids stayed at the Junior High. That division caused friction when the class was reunited in 10th Grade.