Everyone knows that your eighth grade school year typically sucks for any number of reasons, and this has to be one of the best explorations of middle school that I’ve seen on screen, certainly right up there with Welcome to the Dollhouse, even if those two films couldn’t be any more different in style or overall intent.
Writer/director Bo Burnham, in his super-confident debut, has crafted a wonderful showcase for his splendid lead actress, Elsie Fisher, who dominates the entire film with a refreshingly honest portrayal of growing up in our current trends-obsessed society.
It’s a performance that should be discussed when Oscar talk ramps up, but something tells me she’ll be sadly overlooked.
Burnham’s film feels fully authentic to the lives it portrays, and I’m not surprised to learn of his background as a YouTube personality with a stunningly large following.
This film scared me on any number of levels and I’m not sure how excited I am that my own child will grow up with “school shooter” drills as opposed to, you know, just regular-old fire-drills. The technology dependency that’s clearly been latched on to by American youth is also up for discussion in this film, and I loved the performance from Josh Hamilton as the hapless dad who is just trying to do right for his daughter; the final sequences of this movie are complex and emotionally touching.
This is yet another cinematic winner from distributor A24, and I’m not surprised that it became a sleeper box-office hit this past summer, to say nothing of its 99% Fresh rating at Rottentomatoes.
Review by Nick Clement
Summary
WOW. This was painfully great. Everything about this movie is so modern, and yet at the same time, so utterly timeless.
