Eighth Grade isn’t only one of the best films of the year. It’s got some kickass screenwriting lessons hidden inside it. Today, I share them with you.
Genre: Drama
Premise: A chronically introverted eighth-grader attempts to navigate the end of the year by finally breaking out of her shell.
About: Bo Burnham became an Youtube celebrity for the 13 year old demographic when he was just a teenager. He became such a sensation, Judd Apatow hired him to write a teenage musical when he was just 18 (Burnham admits that Apatow made a huge mistake – he had no idea how to write a movie at the time). Now 27, Burnham has come out with his first film. Apropos to his perceived demographic, it’s about a 13 year old girl. The raw real energy of the film shocked the festival circuit, making Burnham a wanted man by every studio in town. If its 99% Rotten Tomatoes score hasn’t convinced you to watch it, maybe this review will.
Writer: Bo Burnham
Details: 90 minutes
I’ve been keeping an eye on Eighth Grade for awhile now. I’d heard amazing things about it, yet I wasn’t convinced the subject matter would be to my liking. In the end, I decided to give it a shot for no other reason than to see if Burnham wrote a screenplay for the movie. I’m convinced these artsy writer-director types don’t care about the script. And I always like to call them out for it. Boy was I barking up the wrong tree this time.
If you haven’t seen Eighth Grade, it follows Kayla, a quiet girl who lives with her father and spends the majority of her time on Instagram and Youtube, where she makes videos of herself giving advice. The irony is that Kayla doesn’t have any experience in the topics she speaks about. The videos are used more as a self-motivational tool. For example, she’ll make a video about “How to be Confident,” then attempt to use those tips the next day at school.
The plot for Eighth Grade is non-existent. There’s no overarching goal. The closest thing we have to a narrative is Kayla getting invited to a popular girl’s pool party. “So my mom said I had to invite you to my party so this is me doing that,” the girl texts Kayla. That and Kayla pining for the hottest boy in class, Aiden, who’s said to have broken up with his previous girlfriend because she wouldn’t send him naked pictures, an opportunity Kayla believes she can exploit.
Eventually, Kayla becomes friends with Olivia, a genuinely kind girl in high school who Kayla meets during the high school “shadow” program. Olivia invites Kayla out with her friends where Kayla tries desperately to shed her quiet persona. She fails, then finds herself alone in the car with an aggressive boy on the ride home, who she escapes, but not without some emotional damage. Kayla manages to toughen up before graduation, finally opening herself up to a new friendship she didn’t even realize was available.
Despite this being a director-driven movie, there’s a lot more screenwriting here than you’d think. Pay attention all you young directors who think movies are pretty shots and cool music. You’re gonna learn sumthin.
For starters, while there isn’t a goal, there is a timeframe. This is a technique I’ve endorsed in the past. Not every story has a goal-driven narrative. The problem that occurs when you don’t have a goal is that your plot starts to wander. You can alleviate this by adding a timeframe, preferably one that ends soon. Eighth Grade starts with a week left til graduation. Since we now know when the story is ending, we don’t care so much that it lacks a goal.
The script also establishes a clear flaw right away. Kayla is quiet. She hates being quiet. She desperately wishes she were loud and talkative like all the cool people in school. How aggressively does Burnham push this flaw? Kayla is awarded “Most Quiet” for the yearbook. I bring this up because a lot of writers think that when you’re writing character driven scripts, you want to be super-subtle about everything. This proves that the opposite is true. Kayla’s flaw is front and center, and it dominates her journey throughout the movie.
But where Burnham really separates himself is through Kayla’s Youtube videos. Again, most indie filmmakers would be overly subtle about who Kayla is, attempting to depict her through her actions alone. While this can be done, it’s extremely difficult. Sooner or later, we need some insight into the character, and we can only get through characters speaking.
So what Burnham did was genius. He explored Kayla’s thoughts through her videos. And not in an on-the-nose way where she’d say, “Today was terrible. Nobody likes me. I’m sick of eighth grade.” No. Instead, Kayla uses her channel to instruct people on how to be strong or how to be confident or how to overcome fear. Since Kayla isn’t good at any of these things herself, we realize that these videos are representations of who she wants to be.
I contrast this with one of the worst indie high school movies I’ve ever seen, Gus Van Sant’s “Elephant,” which does all the things I tell you not to do. The characters don’t speak. We only get to know them through their actions. Everything is extremely subtle. We get zero insight into the characters, and therefore don’t care about them. Kayla’s videos are the key to making her not only memorable, but arguably the most memorable character of the year.
There were a lot of little decisions I loved as well. The second act revolves around a pool party that Kayla gets invited to by the mother of a girl who doesn’t like Kayla. In your traditional studio high school movie, what happens here is that Kayla’s father forces her to go to the party even though she doesn’t want to. But Burnham has Kayla decide to go on her own. The reason this is such a great choice is because it makes your hero ACTIVE. Your hero is deciding her fate. Audiences always prefer this over a character’s fate being chosen for them.
Then there were non-traditional ways of dealing with traditional moments. Like when Kayla finally confronts the cool girl over the fact that Kayla’s always nice to her and she’s never nice back. The scene is an odd one, with Kayla never once looking the girl in the face while she yells at her. Nor does Kayla have a slam-dunk final blow that you’d see in your typical studio movie. Instead, the attack ends awkwardly, with Kayla stumbling away and us never seeing how the girl reacted. It was odd but at the same time way more real than what we’re used to seeing.
I think this film works not only because Burnham did an amazing job directing (the score, in particular, was awesome) and the actress who played Kayla was great. But also because the themes are universal. If you’ve ever wondered how you make a movie that stands the test of time. This is how. You key in on universal themes that everyone feels, not just in 8th grade, but throughout life – loneliness, courage, wanting to break out of one’s self-imposed shell. That was what Kayla did and that’s what helped make this one of the best movies of the year.
[ ] What the hell did I just watch?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[ ] worth the price of admission
[x] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: Kayla is a reminder of one of the most powerful character types you can write – someone who’s in a shitty situation, but who keeps their chin up and never stops fighting. There were so many moments in this movie where Kayla could’ve thrown up her hands and given up. The girl literally had zero friends. Every day at school was a struggle. But she always got up the next day, made a new positive video, and tried to make her life better. It’s literally impossible to dislike a person like this. Keep that in mind when you’re writing your next hero.
