Eighth Grade(Movie, 2018)

Eighth Grade is a 2018 American independent coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by Bo Burnham in his feature-length directorial debut. It stars Elsie Fisher as Kayla, a teenager attending middle school who struggles with anxiety but strives to gain social acceptance from her peers during their final week of eighth grade. She copes by publishing vlogs as a self-styled motivational guru but spends much of her time obsessing over social media, frustrating her otherwise supportive father Mark (Josh Hamilton), whom she alienates despite his wish to be present in her life as her sole parent. Burnham began writing the screenplay in 2014, initially in an attempt to reflect on his own anxiety and onstage panic attacks he experienced during his career in stand-up comedy. Deciding to convey his experience through Kayla, he also wanted to explore how her generation copes with mental illness, grows up with the presence of social media, navigates sexuality and consent, relates to their parents and develops th... ()