Eight Grade

Sad Professor

Avengers 5 will still be showing two months from now, where as this excellent film, which opens on a limited release in Irish cinemas tomorrow, won't be. Give the superheroes a miss for a weekend and check this out instead.

Fysh

I caught an Unlimited showing a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed it - some very funny moments but a real sense of how social media adds complications to adolescence, and a fantastic performance from Elsie Fisher as the lead.

It put me in mind of a more grounded and believable version of The Edge Of Seventeen, without that (enjoyable) film's feeling of First World Problems...

Mr E

Sad Professor wrote: »

.... which opens on a limited release in Irish cinemas tomorrow ...

I think that's the problem though. Avengers will be showing in 4 screens and stuff like this can't even get a foot in the door. Horrible timing, in fairness.

bkrangle

I was at a screening a few weeks back for DIFF

It feels more honest and grounded than most teen comedies/dramas

The focus on the prevalence of technology and social media in young peoples' lives is very interesting and not something I've seen many films look at (without passing judgement).

johnny_ultimate

It’s getting a fairly robust marketing push by ‘limited release’ standards, so hopefully will gain some attention outside the art house crowd.

As I wrote in another thread after watching it:

I can legitimately not think of a single piece of media that has ever had me cringe as frequently as Eighth Grade did. This is almost physically painful on occasion as you watch an awkward teenager navigate a series of awkward teenage situations. Yet it's all by design, and in his directorial debut Bo Burnham has created one of the truest, most incisive portraits of middle-class adolescence one could hope to encounter. He's not too shabby a director either - the camerawork is intimate without feeling invasive or inappropriate, and unsurprisingly for someone so musical he knows how to make the music cues hit. The kid's going places, as is star Elsie Fisher. The ending's too neat and it dips too far into sentimentality at times, plus its ambitions are reasonably limited all things considered. But this is mostly an impressively accomplished if often borderline unwatchable film. I mean borderline unwatchable in a nice way.

S.M.B.

No idea why they waited 9 months after its US release to then decide to show it alongside avengers. Maybe they intentionally want it there as an alternative.

Sad Professor

S.M.B. wrote: »

No idea why they waited 9 months after its US release to then decide to show it alongside avengers. Maybe they intentionally want it there as an alternative.

Yeah, smaller films can often do quite well released alongside big blockbusters which tend to scare off most of the competition. Not everyone is into superhero movies. So the timing of the release isn't necessarily a bad thing.

johnny_ultimate

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

It’s getting a fairly robust marketing push by ‘limited release’ standards, so hopefully will gain some attention outside the art house crowd.

As I wrote in another thread after watching it:

I can legitimately not think of a single piece of media that has ever had me cringe as frequently as Eighth Grade did. This is almost physically painful on occasion as you watch an awkward teenager navigate a series of awkward teenage situations. Yet it's all by design, and in his directorial debut Bo Burnham has created one of the truest, most incisive portraits of middle-class adolescence one could hope to encounter. He's not too shabby a director either - the camerawork is intimate without feeling invasive or inappropriate, and unsurprisingly for someone so musical he knows how to make the music cues hit. The kid's going places, as is star Elsie Fisher. The ending's too neat and it dips too far into sentimentality at times, plus its ambitions are reasonably limited all things considered. But this is mostly an impressively accomplished if often borderline unwatchable film. I mean borderline unwatchable in a nice way.

God dammit johnny, you always hit the nail of the head.


Saw this last night and I've never squirmed so much in my seat. I've never walked out of a film but it did briefly cross my mind. I thought the use of the soundtrack was utterly outstanding. That pool scene, before she goes outside, the music is pumping as it cuts between "innocuous" shots of children playing and made them it look like the most inhospitable creatures on earth. It nailed that feeling of anxiety.


It's a weird one in that I wouldn't recommend it to friends and I don't think I actually enjoyed it in the moment, yet it was beautifully crafted. I'd definitely see anything eles Bo Burnham puts out.

p to the e

I think the one moment that stood out for me above else was when I just got comfortable with the in and outs of this teenage girls life and her small every day problems when, bam, Bo throws a curve ball in the form of a car back seat and made me think this film was about to get very dark very quickly.

I don't pretend to know about the life of a young girl but this seems to me to get as close to understanding it from a grown male perspective as possible. "Nobody uses facebook anymore" grunts Kayla to her "uncool" dad. This one line made me feel older than realising USA '94 was 25 years ago.

Nigel Fairservice

I saw this film this evening and I really enjoyed it. I was Kayla's age in the movie in the late 1990s. I was an awkward teenager as well so I found the movie relatable to a degree despite the difference in gender and the time frame of my own adolescence. Growing up was hard enough in the 90s without the added problems and pressures brought by today's technology. The film was a good insight what kids have to go through today. The film was funny but yet had a hint of underlying sadness and the cringe factor was great at times too. I would agree that the ending was a bit too convenient and was arrived at very suddenly but the movie was well worth a watch overall.

Sabre0001

Saw it last night and really enjoyed it. Thought Elsie Fisher and her lovable dork of a dad were excellent. Really well done.

Thought it was going to go down the Carrie route with her new friends just being incredibly mean...and then it turned out to be so much worse!

Wraps up somewhat neatly but I liked the dinner scene - like a lot of other scenes, it seemed quite natural (moreso the bonding moment) and genuine.

woodchuck

I saw this last night and thought it was really good. I thought it had a good balance of humour in it, but obviously a couple of disturbing scenes

The drill if a shooter comes into the school was highly disturbing - how normalised it has become!
The scene in the back of the car... I was so proud of her when she stood her ground though.

I could completely relate to the main character and was having flashbacks to 20 years ago. The thoughts of going through all that though with the technology that's around today; there's just no escape!

Gucci!