Sunday, December 23, 2018

Catching Up: "Eighth Grade"

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Hey, Guys!

It's me, John.

I want to talk to you today about Eighth Grade.  I mean, the movie.  Because, I mean, who would want to talk about eighth grade the actual experience, right?  Like, you might want to talk about it, but that would mean you need to think about it and no one wants to think about eighth grade ever again, right?  I mean, of course you think about it because it's, like, part of your life, and you can't not think about part of your life.  Except maybe eighth grade you can, because is there anyone on earth, and I mean like anyone on the entire planet, who would want to be 13 years old and be in eighth grade again?

You've got pimples. Even if you have great skin, you have pimples. Except two girls in the school.  One of the girls has perfect hair that she plays with and primps all day and she wears makeup like something from a magazine, and her parents buy her all the nice clothes and she lives in a great house.  And another one of the girls is her best friend and they're always together and she does everything the other girl tells her to do, and because of that everyone wants to be her because they know they can't be the Perfect Girl.

No one is ever that girl.  Just like no one is ever the guy who is already over six feet tall and has hair on his chest.  No one will ever be that girl or that guy, and honestly they've peaked in eighth grade. Seriously. That's sad.

So, in this movie I saw called Eighth Grade there is a girl who is absolutely not the Perfect Girl.

Her name is Kayla Day. She makes YouTube videos on subjects like how to be yourself and how to "put yourself out there."  The thing is, Kayla has no idea how to be herself and no idea how to put herself out there. And because she's in eighth grade she doesn't realize that no one ever knows how to do those things. That everyone is faking it, now and forever.

Kayla's dad is not very helpful. He tries to be, but, GOD, HE IS EMBARRASSING even if they're just sitting around and eating dinner on Friday night. Kayla's mom left them. Now it's just the two of them. Her dad loves Kayla more than you could ever believe.

So, yeah, Kayla makes these videos and no one watches them. At the end of every video she tells people to share and to subscribe, but the videos each have one view. Or no views. No views happened when her dad got too busy to watch, or forgot.  Her dad really loves Kayla.  He thinks she is great.  No one else does, especially not Kayla.

Kayla's school has a Perfect Girl. Kayla gets invited to her pool party (the girl doesn't invite Kayla; her mom does). Some of the boys there turn their eyelids inside out and have breath-holding contests. The girls wear bikinis and stay in the sun. Kayla doesn't know what to do. Kayla says her life is like this: She feels the way you do when you're waiting in line for the roller coaster.

She feels that way all the time. She doesn't want to be doing what she's doing. She's afraid. It's always like that.

She never feels the way you do after you get off the roller coaster.

Eighth Grade is about discovering that you might never feel that way, and being okay with that.  Eighth Grade is about eighth graders, maybe, but not really.  You're not in eighth grade, right?  But it's about you.  A version of you.  A version of you that you remember all too well.

It was written and directed by Bo Burnham, who's only 28 years old himself, so maybe he remembers a little more than others what eighth grade was like.  Or maybe he just has a whole lot of empathy and sees real beauty in the world, in places where no one else notices.

Kayla is played by Elsie Fisher, and her character feels so real that this could be a documentary, though it's not. Everyone in this movie is so wonderful you forget you're watching a movie, really. I mean, you always know you're watching a movie because you're in your living room or a movie theater or whatever, so obviously you're watching a movie. Duh. It's just that some rare movies do this thing where you completely forget that what you're seeing on screen is made up. And you don't really want it to end.

Eighth Grade is that kind of movie.

Okay, well, anyway. That's what I thought of Eighth Grade. Thanks for reading. If you liked this, then share it with your friends and subscribe to my blog, okay?  Yeah. Okay. So, thanks.

Okay.

Bye, guys!

Gucci!



Viewed December 20, 2018 -- Amazon Prime

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