Please Enjoy These Eighth Graders Reacting To The Cringe-Inducing Scenes Of ‘Eighth Grade’
"This is me!"
The delightful but cringe-inducing Eighth Grade has finally arrived in Australia cinemas, after receiving near universal acclaim for its empathetic, naturalistic portrait of teenage social anxiety.
Directed by comedian Bo Burnham, the film follows Kelsey (Elsie Fisher), an eighth grader who struggles to make friends due to social anxiety. She is also an aspiring YouTube personality, vlogging just about every day after school, tackling big topics like self esteem and being true to yourself, despite only ever receiving single-digit views.
It’s a stunning, cringe-inducing watch, largely due to Elsie Fisher and the extended cast — they are real teenagers, who mix up their words and fumble their way through every day interactions, refreshing compared to the slick dialogue of Riverdale or 13 Reasons Why.
Glowing critical acclaim and award buzz aside, the film’s connecting with teenage audiences in a big way — despite its R rating in the US meaning minors had to see it with a guardian (in Australia, it’s rated M). Which means they’re responded to the film’s look at social media’s role in perpetuating anxiety by creating content and their own react videos on YouTube.
Which isn’t as ironic as it sounds — the film doesn’t lambast social media as the source of Kayla’s problems, and acknowledges the potential for connection and self-expression it offers.
Trawling around YouTube, you can find a lot of super cute, smart takes on the film from teens talking about why they found it relatable. The biggest of them is YouTube channel FBE, who are pretty much the titans of the ‘x react to y’ genre. Their round-up of eighth graders watching the trailer, then the film, is pretty great — lots of “This is me on YouTube!” and “Mood!”.
One eighth grader thought the film was a little outta date though. “I felt like for me it was more accurate for the sixth grade, because that’s when people were like LeBron James dab Gucci — no one says that now.”
They also discussed the R-rating in the US. Burnham could have edited the film to a PG-13 rating, but didn’t want to edit out the swearing and sexual content that is a reality in a 13-year-old’s life. The kids agree, with one saying nothing in the film “is going to be worse than what [we] see in real life”.
There’s a real rabbit hole here to go down — Slate have a very cute video too, and then some budding YouTubers have made their own videos. It’s all very sweet — as was, for the record, our own chat with Burnham and Fisher.
Eighth Grade is in cinemas now.