ON CINEMA - June, 2018
FastForward Talks with writer/director Bo Burnham about his debut feature film Eighth Grade
WRITERS: Zadie Winthrop, Sammie Dostart-Meers and Tucker Gold; 8th Grade ~ From: Marin Country Day School and Menlo School
View the trailer for Eighth Grade
Eighth Grade iis a fascinating, challenging film that many of us can relate to. The movie follows Kayla, as she struggles to navigate friendships, drama, crushes, and all things middle school. It begins with Kayla creating a YouTube video where she talks about being yourself. She says, “being yourself can be hard, and it’s like, aren’t I always being myself? And yeah, for sure. But being yourself is not changing yourself to impress someone else.” Kayla creates her videos to give advice to people “like her.” By this she means people who may not be having the easiest time in school, people who feel misunderstood, or people who may be a little bit awkward. In her videos, Kayla brings up many deep colloquialisms. Burnham describes them as the things inside of a Hallmark card, stating, “The deepest questions are at the Hallmark store.” We asked how Burnham chose the topics of each of Kayla’s videos.
He responded, “It’s funny, all these corny phrases that are probably up on posters in your guy’s classrooms are probably some of the deepest questions you will ever ask yourself.” At school, Kayla often feels like she isn’t accepted and feels she can’t be her true self. But, with her YouTube, you see a side of Kayla that is suppressed in school by people not getting to know her. Burnham accurately depicts the current eighth-grade experience by including several topics that are relevant today, while sending a message of the positives and negatives of growing up around social media.
Burnham began writing this movie two years ago, while writing he drew from many of his own experiences, but he had no idea just how relevant the movie would be today. There is a scene that portrays a drill for a school shooting. Themes of school shootings are prevalent and ever-looming but are not seen as serious to the students. He shared with us that this is direct parallelism to his childhood when the United States was concerned with being bombed. During this scene, you see the students casually talking as a teacher walks through the halls with a fake gun. Kayla is even so busy staring at her crush that she barely notices what’s going on. “It’s important to portray the white noise of your background.” Here, Burnham explains how part of being a kid is being oblivious to the terrible things happening around you. Burnham also includes a scene that relates to the #MeToo movement, but we don’t want to spoil anything!
Social Media is the one thing that majorly differentiates kids today from kids 20 years ago. Throughout the film, we see the massive impact Instagram and Snapchat have on a teens’ everyday lives. Kayla feels a need to create a façade of the perfect life on her social media. Burnham being a 27-year-old means he may not have had firsthand experience as to what it is like growing up with social media. He familiarized himself with this experience by watching lots of YouTube videos by teenage girls. From this research, Burnham gained an understanding of the thoughts that go through a teenage girl’s mind. He also made sure to hire eighth graders to add authenticity to the movie. This is not a movie where the kids are unrealistic characters created by adults who are writing about their idea of eighth grade nowadays. Burnham was concerned that his movie would have his actors say things like “#Blessed” that they would never say in real life, so Burnham asked his actors for feedback about his script. Many of the social media scenes were first filmed on Facebook until the actress Elsie Fisher pointed out that “no one uses Facebook anymore.” He then altered it to Instagram and Snapchat.
Whether you’re a teen, a parent, or a child, we think you will see a piece of yourself in Kayla. Each one of us has had a very different middle school experience, yet we have experienced some of the feelings Kayla has. You may relate to her struggle with anxiety, or her journey to make friends, be confident, and put herself out there. Watching this movie, you will fall in love with Kayla. You will be cheering for her through all the ups and downs of her eighth-grade experience.