Eighth Grade

2 August 2018: What an achingly beautiful film this is. The writing, the acting, the images--all just wonderful. It is very clear that technology and social media has made much of what it means to be an eighth grade girl different from what it meant back when I was that age.

But what this movie captures so well is that the emotions are the same. Almost painfully timeless. There's a scene where Kayla, the protagonist, gets dropped off at a party (a pool party, to make it worse) to which she's only been invited because the host's mom insisted. Those first moments--she walks into the house, steps into the bathroom to change, steps outside, gets into the pool and sort of hangs out on the side--are just perfectly done. So familiar and loaded.

At another moment, Kayla and her father have a conversation in their backyard that left me sobbing. The camera pans out to reveal her old swing set in the yard off to the side. It's a reminder that not that long ago, she was just a little kid. It killed me.

What a film.