Film

Eighth Grade

Name: Eighth Grade
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Released: 2018
Cast: Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton, Emily Robinson, Jake Ryan, Daniel Zolghadri

Coming-of-age

Eighth Grade is a small, devastating, funny film about the particular hell of being thirteen in the selfie era. Elsie Fisher's Kayla makes YouTube videos nobody watches while drowning in cafeteria dread and pool-party terror. Bo Burnham directs with tenderness rather than cruelty. It's for anyone who remembers adolescence as embarrassing rather than nostalgic — a squirm-inducing, ultimately kind portrait of surviving your own reflection.

TMDb rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love quietly observant coming-of-age films that find comedy and ache in small, awkward moments, and you don't need much plot to be pulled in by a single anxious, funny, achingly sincere lead.

Skip it if you want brisk storytelling or a clear arc, since it drifts through one ordinary week at a slow, uncomfortable pace and some viewers will find its cringe-heavy social scenes hard to sit through.

What it asks of you: It runs about ninety-four minutes and mostly stays close to its lead, so it asks you to settle into her awkward rhythms and notice small looks rather than wait for big events.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

PEN152019

Two adult women play their own thirteen-year-old selves with zero irony, and it's somehow even more accurate about middle school humiliation than Eighth Grade — the cringe is dialled up, the compassion never wavers.

But The gimmick of adults playing kids takes an episode or two to stop feeling strange.

Lady Bird2017

Same raw nerve of a teenage girl figuring out who she is, but a few years older and angrier — Saoirse Ronan fights everyone who loves her, including herself.

But Warmer and funnier than Eighth Grade; less interested in sitting in discomfort.

The Edge of Seventeen2016

Hailee Steinfeld plays a smart, furious, deliberately unlikeable teenager with the same unflinching honesty about how humiliating growing up actually feels.

But Sharper-tongued and more cynical — less interested in Kayla's gentleness.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Eighth Grade

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Bo Burnham: Inside2021

Same director, same obsession with self-recording as a coping mechanism — Burnham filming himself alone is Kayla's YouTube channel grown up and turned inward.

Bo Burnham locked himself in a room and made this instead of a normal comedy special — it's the exact anxious, self-surveilling energy of Kayla's bedroom videos turned back on their own creator, only sadder and funnier.

But It's a filmed comedy special, not a story, and its bleakness runs far darker than anything in Eighth Grade.

Booksmart2019

Flips the anxiety into pure kinetic joy — two overachievers try to cram four years of fun into one night before graduation, with real warmth under the jokes.

But Louder, faster and far less melancholic; it wants you laughing, not squirming.

Big Mouth2017

Animated, filthy, and somehow more emotionally honest about puberty than most things that aren't cartoons — hormone monsters included.

But Extremely crude and sexually explicit; nothing like Eighth Grade's restraint.

mid90s2018

Jonah Hill's directorial debut trades Kayla's phone for skateboards but shares the same tender eye for a kid desperate to belong to something.

But Rougher and more nostalgic for a specific subculture than Eighth Grade's universal dread.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower2012

A shy outsider finds his people just as Kayla does, filmed with the same generosity toward awkward kids trying to survive high school.

But More sentimental and plot-driven, with a bigger swing toward catharsis.

My So-Called Life1994

The original prestige teen drama — inner-monologue voiceover, hallway dread, the sense that every small humiliation is world-ending.

But Only one season exists, and its mid-90s pacing feels slower than modern teen TV.

The Diary of a Teenage Girl2015

A rawer, more sexually frank coming-of-age story that shares Eighth Grade's interest in a girl narrating her own becoming, awkward footage and all.

But Much more explicit and adult in its content; not the same audience at all.

The 400 Blows1959

French New Wave's founding coming-of-age film; Eighth Grade's naturalistic, unglamorous portrait of adolescent alienation traces directly back to this.

Sixty years before Kayla, Truffaut filmed a lonely, misunderstood kid wandering through an adult world that barely notices him — the blueprint for every quiet, aching coming-of-age film since.

But Black-and-white, subtitled, and from a completely different cinematic language — some patience required.

Thirteen2003

Identical premise — a thirteen-year-old girl navigating a cruel social world — played in the register of horror instead of comedy-drama, showing the same anxieties pushed to their worst extreme.

Same age, same suburban backdrop, but Catherine Hardwicke pushes past social awkwardness into genuine peril — a harrowing reminder of how close 'ordinary' teenage misery can sit to catastrophe.

But Far darker and more disturbing; this is not a comfort watch by any measure.