Eighth Grade

In September 2019, I watched the movie Eighth Grade for the first time at Human Trust Cinema Yurakucho. The other day, I did it again on DVD. The coming-of-age drama film was released in 2018. Elsie Fisher starred for the first time in the movie. It is also Bo Burnham's debut work as a film director.

It follows a middle school girl named Kayla in the United States.

Kayla is shy and a poor talker. She is shocked when she is voted "Most Quiet" by her classmates in the middle school. She is an uncool girl who can be anywhere. She wants to be friends with her cool classmates and tries to talk to them hard, all the same, they dismiss her. She lives with her single father, Mark. He likes to chat with her during meals, however, she is quite into her smart phone and will not let go of it. When he tries to talk to her, she will not stop looking at her phone and tells him not to annoy her. The story describes Kayla's usual days in a detached manner until her graduation from the school. The funniest scene for me was when she is trying to eat a banana that she actually hates. The most heartbreaking scene was when she looks embarrassed wearing a swimsuit because of her plump figure and appears in a pool party filled with her slender classmates. Although various things happens, yet she grows gradually and steadily without losing herself under the benevolent watch of her gentle father. How Kayla glows is admirable and really lovable.

The main character is not popular in the school, so the movie is very realistic as well as Booksmart. I want such realistic movies to increase because in fact, ordinary students are the majority in schools. Basically, I like good coming-of-age dramas in which popular students are the main characters, though I have kind of lost my interest in a romance between a beautiful girl and a handsome boy because it has looked ordinary.

Honestly, I was puzzled a little by the very realistic protagonist when I watched the movie for the first time. After that, however, I watched good ones like Booksmart, Lady Bird and Frances Ha, whose heroines are all true-to-life, and I got used to realistic descriptions of women, so I felt Kayla lovelier than the last time and shed a tear when I did it for the second time.

The film is fantastic and stars the former child actor Elsie Fisher whose performances far outshine the other actors.