Middle school, high anxiety in a beautifully awkward coming-of-age gem.

As much as I adore a good coming-of-age flick, I fully appreciate that the genre has been a bit of a boy’s club through the years. While Molly Ringwald held her own for much of the 80s, it has long since become a genre shot largely from a male POV.

For quite some time, you really had to work to find a coming-of-age movie where girls weren’t anything but bit part players in the journey of the male protagonist. That disappointing imbalance has, thankfully, been righted somewhat in the last couple of decades however.

From Juno to The Edge of Seventeen via Easy A, the last few years have seen an incredible rise in films offering a fresh new view of adolescence and willing to engage with growing up from a distinctly female angle. And out of this boom comes one of the finest examples of the coming-of-age genre to date.

As she enters the final week of middle school, 13-year-old Kayla Day (Elsie Fisher) must endure a tidal wave of contemporary suburban adolescence as she struggles to prepare for the jump to high school. Although she spends much of her time posting motivational videos on YouTube, giving advice on confidence and self-image, Kayla feels permanently paralysed by fear and anxiety, completely unable to make friends or connect with her single father. With high school and adulthood rapidly approaching, Kayla’s mission is simply to get through the rest of the year in one piece, but with awkward encounters and potential embarrassment hiding around every corner, it won’t be easy.

Full disclosure – I am not, and have never been, a 13-year-old girl. Being from the UK too, neither have I ever been in or around an American eighth grade class. Yet while that should, in theory, automatically put a barrier between myself and Eighth Grade, like the very best examples of the coming-of-age genre, demographics matter not in embracing what it has to offer.

There are of course specifics to what Kayla is going through that are difficult/impossible for anyone who isn’t a 13-year-old eighth grade girl to understand, yet there’s something undeniably universal about her situation that will relate across the board. Essentially, we’ve all been there in some capacity. We’ve all been in that confusing hinterland between childhood and adulthood as friends, family, boyfriends, girlfriends, schools, and our own bodies change rapidly before our very eyes.

Relatable subject matter is something that a good coming-of-age movie trades on and Eighth Grade works it for all its got, all while putting on a modern spin that feels neither forced nor awkward. It’s not an easy trick to pull off, but for an idea on how the movie has done it, look no further than writer-director Bo Burnham.

For those not in the know, much like myself, Bo Burnham isn’t a 13-year-old girl. In fact, he’s a dude in his late-20s. Yet, while a guy this age writing about the experiences of a teenage girl may sound horribly awkward, nothing could be further from the truth as Burnham digs deep to cleverly riff on his own past as both a YouTube star and a massively insecure teenager. The result is a refreshingly honest and deeply personal take on a genre that usually comes complete with a nice pair of rose-tinted glasses.

Just one look at Burnham’s YouTube page will tell you all you need to know about where Eighth Grade comes from and just how he’s managed to capture the debilitating anxieties of teenage life so wonderfully. Having found fame with awkwardly intimate pubescent to-camera music videos, Burnham finds a way to distil this humour, heart, and painful honesty into a feature film without it ever feeling forced.

And this is precisely where Eighth Grade shines. It never feels awkward. It portrays teenage gawkiness perfectly without ever coming off like you’re hearing words written by a bloke twice the age of the protagonist. More specifically, these are the words and actions of a 21st century teenager, coming complete with all the modern trappings of youth.

There seems to be a penchant these days to have coming-of-age tales play out within a period setting, with the 80s being particularly on trend right now. Yet, crucially, where Eighth Grade really stands out from the crowd is in its insistence on plugging itself directly into the present. This isn’t Stranger Things were dealing with here, this is a millennial teen drama full of YouTube how-to vids, Instagram DMs, and smashed iPhone screens.

Very much of the here and how, Eighth Grade certainly highlights the pratfalls of modern adolescence, never shying away from the problems and temptations that arise from growing up in the looming shadow of social media; yet it does what any good teen drama should and have complete, unreserved empathy for its protagonist. It’s the kind of trick that the notorious Kids once missed entirely, however, Eighth Grade refuses to get drawn into a game of demonization, choosing instead a path free of judgement or condescension.

It’s kind of par for the course with the genre but Eighth Grade’s plot is as loose as they come, as the Bo Burnham’s script meanders its way through Kayla’s last week of middle school with the casual nonchalance of a teenager asked to put their phone down at the dinner table.

Dropping in on little glimpses of Kayla’s life over this seven-day period, the story plays out as a wonderful slice of life mix of low-key drama and off-kilter comedy. Pockets of humour, tragedy, and awkwardness burst into life in fantastically understated ways before we swiftly move on, often without any sense of resolution or explanation.

But that’s life though. Our entire adolescence often plays out without resolution or exposition and Eighth Grade encapsulates this superbly as it pops in on Kayla at random without ever outstaying its welcome. So long as you’re not looking to be spoon-fed Kayla’s personal journey like many other movies would, Eighth Grade offers something far more rewarding and refreshingly authentic for the patient viewer willing to go with it.

As the crucial connective tissue holding this loose collection of moments together, Kayla’s YouTube videos are awkward and clumsy, yet adorable and a wonderfully insightful tool for a direct look into her inner thoughts. As a form of narration, these pieces to camera not only act as a nice little nod to Bo Burnham’s own past but as an insightful comment on the pressures of social media and the relentless demands for showing expertise in a world you’re still fumbling your way around.

Love, sex, puberty, social awkwardness, embarrassing teachers, even more embarrassing parents – Eighth Grade hits on almost every conceivable subject one might expect from a teen drama. But, while that may sound like its skirting far too close to cliché for comfort, everything is dealt with as honestly and as genuinely as possible.

It’s not easy to cover all of that over a condensed 90-minute timeframe without coming off like a trite box-ticking exercise, but thanks to Burnham’s smart, nuanced writing, Eighth Grade offers something incredibly satisfying. Juggling natural, pin-point humour with a pleasing level of low-key pathos, the script hits just the right balance of warmth and stark honesty to feel truly rewarding.

However, as crucial as it is, good writing will only get you so far with a film like this. It’s a relief, therefore, that Eighth Grade has a secret weapon up its sleeve – and her name is Elsie Fisher. With a performance that belies her tender years, Fisher is an utter joy to behold and manages to lift the entire film to the next level. The success of any coming-of-age tale hinges massively on the performance of its young protagonist and in Elsie Fisher, Eighth Grade has something rather special on its hands.

From the word go, absolutely everything is focused squarely on Kayla as Eighth Grade piles the pressure on Fisher, and despite having nowhere to hide, she actively embraces it. Unflinching camera angles and a distinct lack of makeup mean we’re offered an unfiltered look at teenage life, and rather than shy away from the intense spotlight, Fisher uses it all to her advantage as she perfectly captures the debilitating nature of anxiety and the quiet desperation to just fit in.

It’s a performance of brutal honesty, awkward warmth, and biting humour that pulls us through the wringer as we witness the highs and cringe-worthy lows of teenage life in microcosm. It’s by no means an easy task and there have been many young actors through the years that have wilted under the pressure, yet Elsie Fisher makes it all look so effortless as she puts down a marker for what will surely be a bright future in the industry.

Having once been a teenager very much in the same anxiety bracket as Kayla, it’s impossible to overstate just how much Eighth Grade hits home for me. It’s a film that takes universal truths of adolescence and distils them down to an accessible and painfully personal level. The technology and societal circumstances may have changed, yet Eighth Grade feels timeless.

For anyone traversing the turbulent waters of adolescence right now – or even just their parents – Eighth Grade should be absolutely essential viewing. It’s a film with its ear to the ground far more than most coming-of-age efforts, offering perhaps one of the most agonisingly authentic, yet reassuringly positive, takes on modern teenage life going.

Painfully awkward, wonderfully heartfelt, and with a razor-sharp wit; Eighth Grade is a masterclass in coming-of-age filmmaking. Deftly helmed by first time writer-director Bo Burnham and lifted by a star-making performance from young Elsie Fisher, the film is a brutally honest, yet remarkable compassionate, look at the trials of female adolescence in the 21st century. Honing in on a very modern form of anxiety birthed by technology, the internet, and an omnipresent social media; Eighth Grade may feel very specific in its focus, yet its execution will allow it to connect with many, regardless of age, gender, or social demographic.