8th Grade & Relatable Coming of Age
Bo Burnham is, to most common knowledge, a comedian. Most of his work focuses on expectations, reality, and a pseudo-nihilistic optimism that comes from identifying problems in the world and confronting them with sarcastic wit. With the production of 8th Grade, Burnham presents a subversive take on the coming of age genre in line with his comedy. Namely, intensely awkward and real-to-life moments that defy the normal storytelling and drama expected in the genre.
The primary focus of the film is Kayla Day, the titular eighth-grader, and her final week of school before graduation into high school. She experiences crushes, social anxiety, and lack of confidence in the context of growing up in a social-media saturated environment. Unlike most films which feature “coming of age,” Burnham chooses to tackle serious issues which confront children growing up in today’s environment. For example, Kayla’s family structure is not what we consider the typical nuclear family; it’s just her and her father in the house. He’s trying hard to connect with her, however, Kayla is too engaged in peer-recognition and her coping mechanisms for her anxiety — social media. This exposes her to ideas about sexuality and self-expression that only fuels her lack of confidence and puts her into potentially dangerous situations because of her lack of experience.
While the film frames its acts with her self-help YouTube videos, the audience gets practically beaten over the head with the dissonance between what she’s saying in voiceover and the context following or proceeding these scenes. Take for example the pool birthday party of a popular girl. Kayla was invited by the girl’s mother and it was clear that she wasn’t wanted at the party by her peer, however, Kayla makes the attempt to go anyway. So, while she shuffles awkwardly into the house, her voiceover talks about someone strange and socially isolated coming to her house and then gaining acceptance. Kayla is initially rejected by her peers at the party. Her social anxiety is too difficult to overcome on her own and it takes the boy she has a crush on to motivate her into joining the group in karaoke.
Normally, that overcoming of her awkwardness would be a turning point for the character or even the resolution of the film. It is neither. What Burnham is doing here is a pattern similar to his comedy. Instead of everything turning around for the better once Kayla tries to connect to the group, she goes right back into a self-loathing spiral. Kayla hates the person she used to be and hates the person she is. We see this when, in the following week, Kayla is given a time capsule from the start of her middle school experience which she blanches at. Her gift at the party was shunned and back in a school environment, Kayla is alone once again. To the audience, the framing up to now makes it clear that we are meant to laugh and cringe, however, it is hard to find comedy in the events. Kayla is too relatable and her story within the film is too real. Especially in her explorations of sexuality and her close call with sexual harassment.
Oh yes, there is a very dangerous situation Kayla gets herself into where she’s propositioned for sex in the back seat of a high school senior’s car. Building up to this, the high school shadow week introduces Kayla to Olivia, a senior with whom she is friendly. This is the upswing in the movie. By the logic of Film, the audience thinks things are going to start going well for her, that she’ll make progress in breaking out of her shell around more mature students after having given up on her peers and her previous crush. Though they aren’t her friends, she is finally getting social validation. Kayla’s still awkward, but she feels like she’s improving. Really, Kayla is opening herself up to being coerced or taken advantage of. Directly before this, she felt embarrassed by her father watching her with Olivia’s friends in the mall and sent him away.
The unfortunate thing is that, much like the earlier focus on social anxiety and realism, the danger Kayla was in is very real. Burnham consistently undercuts his comedy with tense reality before backing off, much like the high school boy that propositioned her. This is her real breaking point and it takes her finally meeting her father’s attempts at connection for a real resolution in the film. For most, Burnham’s focus on real social problems and real threats in the life of a young woman would be more at home in documentary-style films. Coming of age stories focus on large-to-children stakes and often have a moral lesson at the end. 8th Grade doesn’t have this obvious morality ending. There’s no clean conclusion to other plot threads either. It’s less of a neatly tied narrative and more of a series of snapshots of a girl growing up. Her stakes are small to adults and mean the world to teenagers — social acceptance. It’s something that she doesn’t get by the end of the movie. Her peers do not recognize her the way she wanted, but Kayla has stopped valuing herself by their opinions of her and found a better person to pursue her blooming romantic interest with.
Burnham concludes a painfully real film with genuine comedy and a hopeful tone, of course, but in the context of the genre and the experience, it leaves more to be desired. The audience knows that though their window into Kayla’s life is closed, she still has a lot of strife ahead of her. The only thing that changes about her is her self-confidence. She’s still socially awkward, she’s still growing up, but now she knows how to accept herself.