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whatsnewalycat · 1 year

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Hey I rewatched the movie Eighth Grade this weekend and I want to process my feelings. Totally understand if not one human reads this fucking novella, I just gotta organize my thoughts, and I’m putting them here in case it resonates with anyone. Below the cut because L O N G.

(tldr: this movie is fucking brilliant, a masterfully told coming-of-age story. I mean that. And you should watch it)

First of all, I love how awkward Kayla is.

Elsie Fisher fucking murdered it in this role. It’s palpable how uncomfortable Kayla is in her own skin. The way she carries herself, and projects her online persona, and acts in real life, it’s painful how those things merge and give us a picture of who she is really and who she desperately wants to be. It’s deeply, deeply relatable. The entire movie, but especially the first half, I couldn’t stop squirming in my seat, because I remember feeling exactly like that at that age.

The videos Kayla posts with her tips. Ok. It’s fucking brilliant how Bo Burnham (writer and director) spliced those videos with what she’s really going through. It’s obvious she has no idea what she’s talking about, because she’s just rambling on and really saying nothing at all. And it’s so uncomfortable to sit through. She’s making these videos as a way to inspire herself to be a person she thinks is worthy of connection. It’s establishing authority and “big voice narration” spun on its head and I love it so so so much.

Now the aspect of technology and social media. The first quarter of the movie we see that she is constantly on her phone. She’s scrolling Instagram and liking everything her school mates post, commenting on their pictures, etc. Again, she’s projecting this online persona that is outgoing and cheerful and cool. But we see that none of these people actually acknowledge her presence IRL.

When her phone screen shatters, then she cuts her scrolling thumb on the screen, it’s a turning point in the storyline. Her old way of doing things, only reaching out for human connection through the safety of her online persona, has literally made her bleed. It’s not necessarily a catalyst as much as it is a symbol, but she’s on her phone less from this point onward.

Another thing that happens around this time in the storyline: she gets her Time Capsule. It has “the coolest girl in the world” adorned on the lid, and she knows the video she has on the usb drive inside is her going into 6th grade with the hopes and dreams of becoming cool and making friends. She understands that she’s exactly the same as when she entered middle school, and her way of attempting to make connections has failed.

So she goes forward knowing she has to do the scariest thing: put herself out there. Try to talk to people in real life. She goes to Kennedy’s pool party, even though it gives her a literal panic attack, and the guy she has a crush on acknowledges her existence for the first time ever. And it is exactly the encouragement/reinforcement she needed to show her that this is good. It propels her forward instead of backwards into the safety of her shell.

For her, this is life-changing. She thinks this is a new beginning where these cool people are going to let her into their club and she will have friends. But when Kayla talks to Kennedy the next school day, and gives her a note to thank her for inviting her to the party, Kennedy and Steph are engulfed in their phones and barely acknowledge Kayla’s presence. She’s still fucking invisible to them.

Quick sidebar: the birthday gift Kayla gives Kennedy is a card game that obviously is one she has played with her dad. The cold reaction that Kennedy gives to the gift reinforces Kayla’s belief that the things she genuinely enjoys are not cool. That she is this weird girl (as she puts it in her vlog) and not worthy of belonging.

Another quick sidebar: the fucking school shooting drill, holy fuck. How desensitized all these literal children are to the threat of a mass shooting. WOOF. Again, bravo, Bo Burnham.

Then there’s the high school shadow. We meet Olivia, who is 1) to Kayla, obviously cool, and 2) to me, obviously the kind of person who has a history of intense short-term relationships. The way she so brazenly tells Kayla that she feels like they’re best friends, it’s fucking telling. I had a friend like this in middle/high school. It’s very Evie Zamora in Thirteen. It’s not real. And we know this, but Kayla doesn’t. She wants a best friend so fucking bad. It’s literally on her to-do list, and she (understandably) mistakes Olivia’s faux connection as real.

She hangs out with Olivia and her friends at the mall. She feels like she’s finally cool. But there’s Gabe who tells her “I’m not quiet, you’re quiet” and that’s like… a major tender spot for Kayla. Anyway, Olivia, who should have been a protector for Kayla, leaves her ward in an unsafe situation with Riley, and that’s really shitty of her.

Fucking Riley. He preys on Kayla’s naïvety. He knows that she wants to be cool, especially cool in the eyes of Olivia, and tries to take advantage of that. And here’s the part where I’m going to start crying. Because our girl Kayla says no. She goes against her desire to be cool and vehemently, LOUDLY, insists NO. And, in her skewed understanding, thinks that her saying no was cowardly. But it wasn’t. It was so fucking brave. She listened to her inner knowing and stood up for it, even though it meant potentially giving up the things she wanted the most: being cool and having a best friend.

When she and her dad burn the Time Capsule, she’s burning her dream of being the coolest girl in the world. Being (what she has learned to be) cool isn’t what she thought it would be. She thought it would mean connection and belonging, but time and time again throughout this story, it has only meant she has to compromise her values and her true self.

Ok now let’s talk about Kayla and her dad. Her dad loves her so much. Throughout the story that he’s trying to coax her out of her shell and be herself, but Kayla ignores his advice. But when they’re burning the Time Capsule, she opens up to him. Instead of pushing him away, we see her express her inner pain out loud. This is the first time in the story she allows her real self to be seen. It’s vulnerable, and again, so fucking brave.

And her dad… fuck. He says the most perfect things. He tells her his truth, which is that she’s fucking wrong, and she is cool. It’s just that her previous definition of cool was skewed.

We find out that Kayla’s mom abandoned her as a child. And although her dad tried his hardest, there was always going to be a part of her that thinks her true self is defective and not worthy of connection, love, and belonging. But that’s not true. And her dad helps her see that.

From that point, we see her live her goddamn truth. She’s still awkward and quiet, but that’s not a fault, it’s just part of who she is. She hangs out with Gabe, who is kind of a dork and not obsessed with trying to be cool, and it’s SO FUCKING CUTE I LOVE IT. At graduation, Kayla confronts Kennedy about how shitty she made her feel. It’s amazing.

By the end, she’s transformed into someone who understands that true connection comes from your true self, and anything short of that is unfulfilling.

Anyway. Idk if it’s because I deeply identify with Kayla on so many levels (i had an Olivia, and a Riley, and a mother who abandoned me as a baby, and a single father who raised me, and was just so fucking awkward and lonely throughout childhood), but it’s my favorite goddamn coming-of-age tale, ever. A masterpiece. Please watch lol.

#eighth grade #bo burnham #media analysis #movie rec #coming of age

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9ine-5ive · 1 month

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can we stop making movies trying so hard to be relavant...

i watched eighth grade (2018) and it was so good. but I couldn't get over the "gucci"and "LeBron james"and dabbing...

it was so bad it ruined so much

#eighth grade #eighth grade 2018 #movies #movie review

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melissonomos · 9 months

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negotiating masculinities with my cousin, a 14 year old boy

#Barbie #barbie movie #for the memes #it’s gonna be my new catchphrase #you gotta say it in an eighth grade boy false baritone tho #the kenergy is strong with this one

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wormswhosaybruh · 1 year

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Just finished watching Eighth Grade for the first time and I have to say, it is such a time capsule of my middle school experience. Like it's directly lined up with the year I was in eighth grade and all the references and stupid memes and stuff were all there.

And it's honestly really good

#i also literally went to middle school with the actor who plays kayla #which always makes me feel like im annoying when i mention it #but like .... they know my middle school experience perfectly #literally had the same middle school experience as them #and then the movie is like omg what will happen in high school??#it was covid man #we got covid #anyway shes super cool #best person to be someone from my middle/high school to actually become famous and super successful #eighth grade

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shirkers2018dirsanditan · 1 year

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people act like teenagers are literal children to the point where its creepy but also coming of age movies are completely different from teen soaps like the many steamy teen shows of the 2000s or low-quality technically prestige television like euphoria. or frenetic shows like skins. these shows are for older teens and young adults, who are more than old enough to watch material about sex and drugs and drinking……lol

#i wanted to see wolf of wall street as a middle schooler #i was in eighth grade going into ninth and i was 13 turning 14 in 2013 #and i begged my dad to take me to see this scorsese flick #its actually a funny story because the entire family went to the movie theater but my sister was like 11 so she went to see frozen #but obviously frozen ended before WoW so she had to join me and my parents in the movie #and well…#my dad is still horrified by that LMFAO #he was like i was just praying the worst was over when she had to come in. but it wasn’t #LMAO #anyway

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writing-sense · 7 months

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guardianreadersofthegalaxy · 7 months

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If I were on the Films To Be Buried With podcast:

What was the first-ever film you saw, or remember seeing? Mulan. I remember the screen being really big, but I think maybe I was just small. I got a happy-meal toy of the fat bloke that would trundle along on wheels if you pulled a string (unlike the character in the film who didn't actually have wheels). And I got the CD-ROM tie-in game, my favourite bit being the level when you pick Mulan's outfit to meet the matchmaker. Then I got older, the toxic masculinity set in, and I felt retrospectively embarrassed for liking something girly.

What was the film that scared you the most? We watched The Mummy one Christmas Eve when I was in primary school as my parents had heard it was a fun family romp. The opening 5 minutes were so fucked up I didn't sleep for a week. I like being scared now though. I love the first part of Ghost Stories, the one with Paul Whitehouse in an asylum at night with his torch flickering out. I remember thinking "I've peaked! I can't physically be more scared than this!"

What was the film that made you cry the most, and are you a cryer? I'm not usually a crier but I like it when it happens. I know it's a cliche but I always cry at Up. Bereavement's my trigger. I always get a bit choked up at Tiny Tim's death in The Muppets' Christmas Carol but last year my wife and watched it shortly after the death of a close friend and we wept buckets.

What is the film that’s made you laugh out loud the most? I recently watched The Man With Two Brains for the first time. I love that kind of silly comedy where ridiculous things happen but the characters take it seriously, no one's rolling their eyes or saying "that just happened". Also RRR is unintentionally hilarious and I love it for that.

What film is underrated but you love it? A Knight's Tale never gets the praise it deserves. It's a fun, sincere, exciting, historical-romantic-comedy about jousting. Everyone in the cast gives it their all, especially Paul Bettany, and the needle drops are sick.

What is the film you once loved but watching it recently you realise it’s not great? I watched Donnie Darko in primary school as a sort of entry-level horror film (in that it had a creepy bunny-man and a few jump-scares) and thought it was really deep all through my teens. It was my favourite film for a long time. But I watched it recently and it's just kind of pretentious, with nothing going for it but great music and good ensemble cast and a lot of teen angst.

What is the film that means the most to you, not because of the film itself, but because of the memories, you have of it? I've got two films I associate with break-ups. I saw 500 Days Of Summer at a time when I was listening to a lot of Los Campesinos and thought it was cool to be cynical about romance. My girlfriend and I broke up the next day. Two years later, I came home after breaking up with my second girlfriend. My dad poured me a whiskey and we watched the 2005 Pride And Prejudice, just cos it was on TV. It's not a great film but it took my mind off the break up.

What is the sexiest film? I never really found films sexy until I saw Steven Soderbergh's Out Of Sight. George Clooney's a fugitive and Jennifer Lopez is an FBI agent trying to catch him, but they fancy each other so much that they meet up in a hotel to have sex anyway. The music is so frigging good.

What’s a film that isn’t probably supposed to be sexy but you found yourself turned on by? Mind your own business!

[EDIT] There's something about Mrs Tweedy from Chicken Run...

Which film do you most relate to? Eighth Grade. Like Kayla, I was a social pariah for some of my teenage years and it felt like that was just the way it was, I would never have friends. But, like a lot of problems it turned out to just be temporary. If you keep putting yourself out there, stay patient, and don't lose hope, you'll get there in the end.

Which film is the one you’ve watched the most? Probably The Fellowship Of The Ring. I remember my mum walking in on me watching the video going "really Dom?! That's the second time this week!" I'd have friends over and we'd reenact the council of Elrond: "So I'll say 'You have my sword' and then you be Legolas and say 'and you have my bow'..."

What’s the worst film you’ve ever seen? If there's a genre I can't get behind, it's biopics. They often assume you already like the subject so don't bother making them likeable as a character. The worst of all is Good Vibrations. It makes out Terri Hooley to be a smug, cocky prick who everyone's in awe of despite him treating them all like shit. I've rarely wanted to punch a character so hard.

Which film is objectively the greatest ever? It's tough, but I'm gonna go for O Brother Where Art Thou? Great performances, incredible music, hilarious comedy. The use of colour grading revolutionised the post production process. I love how it makes fun of its characters, except when they're singing - that it takes seriously. Even the villainous KKK leader gets a song and, weird as it is to say, that guy can really croon.

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metaforadohomeminvisivel · 7 months

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#We're All Going to the World's Fair #jane schoenbrun #Anna Cobb #eighth grade #elsie fisher #computer generated image #gen z #bo burnham #indie #indie movies

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solitaryandwandering · 8 months

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Hi....If you don't mind, can I ask, what are your top 10 (or top 7) favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series)? Why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before......Thanks....

Hiya! Of course I don't mind, thank you so much for asking!! This question is... EVERYTHING. I've subsisted almost solely on different forms of narrative art my entire life, this list could seriously span MILLENNIA (and would not account for quality lol). I'll do 7, just because I tend to spend FOREVER making these lists, haha. I'm not generally into manga or anime so those will be excluded, sorry! I also try to pick something different for every list I do, so here's hoping I don't repeat anything I've talked about before!

A Series of Unfortunate Events (my favorite is book #4, The Miserable Mill) by Lemony Snicket (pub. 1999-2006; United States) - 4/5

Other than just being a fantastically written children's book series, the answer to why I love this so much is pretty personal and would take up an entire essay's worth of unpacking. So I'll try to keep it short (ha!). When I said above that I basically subsisted on media as a kid, I was not joking. Books were my first love precisely because they allowed me an escape. I was ostracized by many of my peers in school and had nowhere else to turn except books - mostly fiction, mostly fantasy, but I read a LOT of classics, Greek mythology, Sherlock Holmes, Nancy Drew, Shakespeare, etc. One of the genres I gravitated to most was gothic fiction/poetry - something I consider foundational to my current taste and sense of humor - and no book nor series was more accessible than ASOUE. I still vividly remember discovering the series in my elementary school library; while everyone else was doing something or other with the group I snuck off into the shelves and boredly perused until I came across what was probably The Grim Grotto. The texture of the hardcover, its design, the ART immediately captivated me. It stood so widely apart from the other children's books on those shelves. Then I hunched over on the floor and began reading. And... I don't even know what about it grabbed me. It might have been that these intelligent kids were also lonely, also struggling to survive, surrounded by ignorant and neglectful adults. It might have been Snicket's style, absurdist and full of big words my slightly pretentious kid brain gobbled up. Maybe it was its mystery, the thrill of an anonymous author who very well may have actually published these books! from a secret bunker or shack on an island!, commiserating, asking me for help. Maybe it was how dark it was, paired with delightful humor which PERMEATED every page, probably my first real introduction to dark humor. I wandered away with that book (and The Carnivorous Carnival) before I was ushered back by the librarian or a teacher once we realized I had not read the first books in the series yet. My eyes must have been as big as dinner plates. The rest is history; The End may very well have been one of my first "anticipated events" in the world of narrative media. I own the entire series now, including that hardcover copy of the last book I picked up at Borders in the first couple of weeks after its release.

2. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (1890; United Kingdom) - 3/5

This is a book I read on my iPod Touch in high school. Only book I ever did that with haha. I think at the time I had just signed up for Goodreads and they had a free version of the book on their website? Anyway, that didn't stop me from absolutely loving it. I had never stopped reading things in the vein of gothic fiction, but it wasn't until high school that I started to read (some) more explicitly horror-oriented stuff. Horror books have never really been my cup of tea, simply because I tend to either get TOO immersed or bored very quickly. I'm pretty confident in crediting this book for giving me one of my first satisfying tastes of horror in a literary form. That ending still STICKS with me, man!! The psychological horror of it all! I don't think I really picked up on the queer (sub?)text all that much besides in the character of Basil Hallward which is more an indication of how much I was struggling with compulsory heterosexuality than of the CLEAR intent of Wilde in... everything he put in TPODG. I'm pretty sure I had only relatively recently come out to myself (and was still closeted). But regardless, this book also launched an utter fascination with Wilde himself; when I visited Paris with my mom and aunt in my senior year I insisted on visiting Wilde's tomb in Père Lachaise Cemetery (the entire place is AWESOME btw). Standing in front of the tomb, reading the epitaph, reflecting on his life and art and how it influenced the lives of queer people in the UK, meditating on my own future as a queer person and my context in queer history, was a pretty significant moment in my queer journey.

3. Avatar: The Last Airbender created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko (ran 2005-2008; United States) - 10/10

I mean, what more is there to say about this amazing show? How gorgeously animated, written and acted it is? How compassionately each character was written? How it made concepts like genocide and warmongering not only accessible but legible for children? How it's literally a children's cartoon but is one of the most moving portraits of micro- and macro-level geopolitical grief? How abuse and efforts to reclaim a life mottled by it is a PRESENT and CLEAR theme? How much the theme song SLAPS?? Fuck, I need to rewatch this. On a more personal note, Toph was the first example I saw in media of a legitimately blind character - not just one "playing at" blindness. Her being a MAIN character and so completely in charge of her shit was fucking incredible to me. Then! The impossible! She was COMPLEX, allowed to be realistically limited by her blindness and youth. Though I wasn't able to completely relate to her as someone who was only a "low vision" blind person her character existing at all gave me a lot of strength. And yes, I would be an Earth bender.

4. Teen Titans created by Sam Register and Glen Murakami (ran 2003-2006; United States) - 9/10

I don't really know what to say about this, it's honestly here based off a lot of nostalgia as I haven't re-watched more than the first couple of episodes after I graduated kid-dom. But this is yet another example of great characters navigating abusive or toxic relationships, all the while kicking butt as super-cool superheroes. I've always been a huge sucker for superheroes (I haven't bought into the current superhero craze for quite some time though); these teens took the cake and so did that THEME SONG!! Still occasionally plays on a loop in my head! Looking back I absolutely had a crush on Starfire though I REPRESSED THAT SHIT and instead focused on how absolutely cool and badass Raven was (also probably had a crush on her tbh). Of course, her story of overcoming her overwhelming emotions and mental illness (such as they were, in a kid's superhero cartoon) resonated with me quite a bit. Outwardly, though, I was absolutely obsessed with Cyborg. I had this running joke as a kid where I would tell people I was a cyborg because I had a cochlear implant. Cyborg gave me a cultural reference to relate to and I LOVED HIM for it. Even if Beast Boy was my favorite.

5. My School President dir. Au Kornprom Niyomsil (ran 2022-2023; Thailand) - 9/10

I blame my sappy, sentimental heart and preteen obsession with High School Musical for this one. But let's be real, this show is SO CUTE. It came along at the perfect time, too, as I was struggling pretty badly with depression and PTSD flashbacks in the beginning of 2023. MSP was the first time in a while I really felt like I had "something to look forward to" in terms of appointment television. I enjoy watching TV as it airs but it's very rare for me to latch on to a show so much that I get EXCITED when it airs, let alone for it to genuinely keep me buoyant and, for lack of a better word, going. The last time that happened was in high school for the brief period of time we had BBC America and I could watch Doctor Who. MSP is just so... joyful. It made me happy. Sweet, consistent, well-acted, with love seeping out of every pore... so easy to love. It has just the right amount of tongue-in-cheek cheesiness while still taking itself and it's characters' troubles seriously. Though the music wasn't always my thing (those boys are not stellar singers... yet), all the songs fit with the story and were very fun and touching - I'd be lying if I said I didn't still JAM OUT whenever a MSP song plays on Spotify. Despite some small misses here and there, it still managed to be incredibly smartly-written. I was not expecting this show to be so good or to make me so emotionally invested. Right up my alley.

6. Hereditary dir. Ari Aster (2018; USA) - 5/5

Though it may be a surprise to those of who I've come to know in my exploration of (mostly televised) BL, I consider movies to be what I'm most passionate about, if we had to pick a medium of narrative storytelling. I've loved films since I was very little but my love for film was revitalized with a PASSION in college. 2018 was a big year for movies, Hereditary being one of its many shining lights. Seeing this still remains one of my best theater experiences. My best friend and I spontaneously decided to see this when we were bored and in desperate need to put off the realities of school. I had been laboriously begging them to see Hereditary with me and was THRILLED to go, armed with trivia and opinions of film critics to unload as soon as we walked out (I am so thankful they put up with me). We were one of around maybe 20 other theatergoers, so we could hear every single gasp and comment made under the breath of anyone around us. It was GREAT. Not only the movie, of course, which is a phenomenally directed and acted (#OscarForToni) horror/family drama; the audience reacted perfectly. It felt like a truly communal experience, laughing and exhilarating together at our collective fear and awe. When the lights went up we all grinned at each other and trembled our way out to the parking lot. Especially great considering I've heard horror stories (lol) of people laughing during some screenings??? And yes, of course, the movie itself is very very good. I can't watch much horror because of the aforementioned issues with TOO MUCH immersion but regardless, on a purely academic front horror is one of my favorite genres to study. All that to say, I've grafted a tougher skin when it comes to watching certain kinds of horror films and know what to avoid. Films like this one, with so much artistic integrity (get back to me on the disability rep, I have thoughts), keep me coming back for more. Nothing prepared me for Annie sawing her fucking head off with a piano wire though, no thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

7. Eighth Grade dir. Bo Burnham (2018; USA) - 5/5

Guess the theme of this answer became "let me tell you about incredibly personal pieces of media and force you to listen" but hey. Favorites are favorites. Holy fuck, this movie hit me. I'm sure it's not a surprise to anyone who's followed me for any length of time that coming of age narratives are some of my favorites; this doubly holds true for film. Though the girl in this movie is very much of Gen Z there are so many elements of her middle school experience that resonate with my teen years, including the absolutely horrific decision to put unbearable YouTube videos up of yourself for EVERYONE TO SEE. God, for most of this I was cringing in absolute embarrassment. How did Bo crawl into my past?? Why did he put it on screen, AGAIN? Genuinely, though, I was completely blown away. Most people recognize Bo's talent as a filmmaker at this point but this was his first try at making a feature film. I came into this knowing of his previous work, having watched (and loved) his comedy specials and purchased his poetry book. I also knew of many of his Vines, of course. But nothing prepared me for how GOOD this is. To choose this subject is wonderful in the first place but to then, in his FIRST FEATURE FILM, completely compassionately excavate and examine the anxieties and small (but so insurmountable!) problems of an entirely normal eighth grade girl is POWERFUL. Nearly impossible to do, let alone with this much skill and insight. Every choice he makes as a director with his camera and actor directions entirely SUPPORT the story instead of being flashy additions. An excruciating watch for any AFAB person who struggles with social anxiety (mine reared its ugly head in ninth grade), especially if you're sitting in a very small independent movie theater in the middle of nowhere, Maine (not my home state). Still, absolutely beautiful and emotive, one of the most true-to-life films I've ever seen. This, I should absolutely rewatch. Maybe when I feel like being tortured.

#mine #dnana-2809-blog #asoue #oscar wilde #favorite shows #atla #teen titans #my school president #favorite movies #hereditary #OscarForToni #eighth grade #bo burnham #the picture of dorian gray

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