Written and directed by Bo Burnham, Eighth Grade shows Kayla navigating her last days of Grade 8. The director captures early-adolescent awkwardness, pain and insecurities with empathy and a comic touch. Kayla is a painfully introverted middle-schooler who gives perky online self-help tutorials that are really pep talks to her as are the Post-it Notes covering her wall space.
Kayla’s dad is a single-parent working to maintain his connection with his only child. He’d like to talk to her at the dinner table if only she would remove her ear buds!
The film is not just for girls. The director says that it is a human experience and the Kayla character is as good a conduit to what it means to be a human being as anybody. The film is considered one of the most thoughtful, likeable and honest teenage films in recent years.