As I write this review, for me personally, it has been almost 20 years since I was both in and graduated from my eighth grade class. In seeing a movie about what the eighth grade is like in 2018 as opposed to 1999 and 2000, it really is quite amazing at both the similarities of when I was there and also things, particularly involving technological advancements that now play a large role both in the lives of the students, but also in their education as well. This film is different in the aspect that in the classroom, hallways, cafeteria and pretty much anywhere they can, their iPhones are accessible and there seems almost to be a lack of communication verbally between students and their peers and most of the conversation is written down via text messages being sent not just periodically, but frequently throughout the day. I did not have that when I was in the eighth grade and when you look at cell phones from back in that time period, they were big clunky things and only a select number of people had them and it was not at all in pretty much the normal way of things as this current culture and generation has made of it. Facebook was also not invented till I finished college and I have had many opportunities to use it, but still to this day I choose not to and with the recent information that users of Facebook have pretty much had their identities sold for a profit to other companies, I am glad I took the stance I did and continue to not use it. Nevermind the fact that I still believe that a lot of this technology has taken away what used to be a simple everyday thing of actually talking and engaging with one another in conversations. Now it seems like a fine art and even when I see people both at my workplace, or in the local shopping mall, most people tend to have their head bent over and engaging in who knows what on their cellular phone. The main character of this film is also constantly on her phone checking videos, posting videos and basically liking all the new posts, videos and pictures that become available. I am not in school now and nor do I plan to be again, but I can certainly sense that all this liking and disliking and trying to meet your peers approval over social media must be an extremely vexing if not downright depressing thing. Also look over the years at all the bullying that has also been done with this so called great technology. It has lead to embarassment, being ostracized and sometimes even sadly suicide of people who were so young that they barely even had a taste of what their future had in store for them. The whole technological advancement is certainly a big change and I would personally hope that within the school system that there is more done to keep it under control and that people do actually engage in conversations and extra curricular activites because if not we are a society that will not only get dumber, but more and more socially awkward and this is not something that I think anyone would agree is a good thing. Many things after all these years do still stay the same within the middle school and high school years as well and these include such things such as trying to fit in, personal insecurity, bullying, making friends as well as a little thing called hormones which is about to really come into play about that grade. Our main character here is pretty much an ordinary girl going through ordinary situations and emotions and yet because I have been in her shoes so to speak, there were times during the film that I just wanted to give her a hug and let her know that it would all be okay and that those few years we spend in school will not dictate the rest of our lives, but even if I was to say that to my teenage self all those years ago, would it have helped, or would I have believed it? I know of more and more people now who have decided to home school their children and for probably some very good reasons as well as some negative including my fear that it may isolate the children too much and may become a detriment to their social skills as they get older, but I think that most people would agree that there are problems with the current system. Eighth Grade does not try to answer any of these dilemmas and quite frankly sometimes I got downright uncomfortable watching this young girl go from one difficult situation to another, but at the same time it was refreshing in the sense that this isn't new just for this generation, but from mine too and the one before and also the next. This is a film that deals with this subject with great honesty and also has a deep sense of humanity and empathy for our characters. It shows that if we stick it out it may, or may not get better, but things will eventually hopefully come our way and school is such a short part of our lives even though it is so influential in good ways and bad. This is a marvellously astute film that has one of the best scripts in quite some time and the acting is so natural and honest that it ranks with some of the year's best performances. Whatever age you are, you should see this film if you are a student, or parent and it should be a jolt to your senses and may hopefully invoke changes within the schools and more ways to help our youngsters. One of the year's best films.
Review of Eighth Grade
