All of adolescence is a rough trip, filled with embarrassment, ridicule and too many gross things happening to the body involving too many fluids. But there’s a particularly tough time to go through in the middle school range, right when you become a teenager and start to discover the world and real emotions. This awkward, heart-breaking, and, when looking back on it, often funny time period is the subject of the new movie EIGHTH GRADE, the new movie from writer/director Bo Burnham. The first trailer encapsulates the movie’s emotion and humor, showing off the bevy of wonderful reviews the movie received at Sundance and a star-making performance from Elise Fisher (DESPICABLE ME franchise). Do I smell this year’s LADY BIRD? Yes, I do, and that smell reminds me of my sweaty middle school gym class.
Here is the plot synopsis for EIGHTH GRADE:
Thirteen-year-old Kayla endures the tidal wave of contemporary suburban adolescence as she makes her way through the last week of middle school—the end of her thus far disastrous eighth-grade year—before she begins high school.
Burnham has been directing stand-up specials since 2013, and recently directed Chris Rock’s Netflix special, TAMBOURINE. This movie marks his feature debut, and the movie received rave reviews out of Sundance, and currently has a 100 percent rating o Rotten Tomatoes (with 27 reviews). Based on the trailer alone I can tell this will be a worthy entry in the coming-of-age canon, and I can already recall my own embarrassing time in middle school after watching it. So much went wrong.
EIGHTH GRADE hits limited theaters on July 13.