In a review of Eighth Grade, Mark Jackson stated this: “Middle school is a rite of passage—a pilgrimage, or an odyssey, trying to get to the Land of Coolness. Or not. There’s the Navigating of the Desert of Loneliness. The Sailing of the Oceans of Embarrassment. The Tripping and Banging of the Chin on the Boulders of Shame. There’s the running of all the nightmarish social gauntlets. It might be the most horrible time of life!”. This is one of the most poignantely accurate descriptions of the multitude of emotions that occurr when viewing Bo Burnham’s remarkable film. Part of what makes this movie so transcendant is the performance of the actress Elsie Fisher as thirteen year-old Kayla who is, aptly, in eighth grade.
Debbie talks to Bo about his film Eighth Grade, and to the young star of that movie, Elsie. “I was simultaneously the most prepared and least prepared I could be for the role.”
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