History Film / EighthGrade

** Although she's clearly not the only one - even the cool kids seem to spend more time on their phones than interacting with each other, like in the scene where Kayla tries to talk to Kennedy and her friend who are walking together but both are glued to their phones.
* PrecisionFStrike: Normally mild-mannered Kayla tosses off s-bombs when she breaks her cell phone.

* ThisLoserIsYou: The film positions Kayla as a socially awkward, [[IJustWantToHaveFriends friendless loser]] going through a ComingOfAgeStory with universal appeal to the intended audience while taking pains to avoid making her unsympathetic via a negative attitude. Kayla does not complain about her situation, her anxiety is expressed mostly nonverbally, and she consistently expresses her emotions via concern for others, not herself - making youtube videos with the intent of helping her (non-existent) audience, asking her dad if she makes him feel sad.

* AbortedArc: It appears briefly as though the film is going to [[CerebusSyndrome take a darker turn]] when Kayla attracts Aiden's attention by telling him she has naked selfies on her phone that she plans to give to the next guy who becomes her boyfriend, but after he asks her whether she does blowjobs she finds she cannot even practice on a banana, and the plot arc disappears from the story.

* AllMenArePerverts: Aiden and [[spoiler:Riley.]] The former, mostly innocently; the latter, not so much.

Burnham based the initial idea for the film on his own struggles with anxiety, and decided to use Kayla to convey his experiences and explore how Generation Z navigates the modern coming-of-age process. In doing so, he strove for realism, which included casting and seeking input from actual eighth graders and not shying away from the mature topics faced by that age group. To that end, the MPAA gave the film an R rating upon release that elicited controversy as it would prevent eighth graders from seeing it; in response, [=A24=] organized completely free unrated screenings across the US.

* OhCrap: Kayla starts tossing off s-bombs when she realizes she has [[PhoneaholicTeenager broken her phone]], and when she sees the horde of wild kids in the pool at Kennedy's party the look on her face is one of utter dismay.

-->''[[TheStinger "Gucci!"]]''

''Eighth Grade'' is a 2018 American [[ComingOfAge coming-of-age]] [[CringeComedy comedy]][[{{Dramedy}} -drama]] film notable for being the feature-length debut of musical comedian Creator/BoBurnham as a director and writer. The film premiered on January 19, 2018 as part of that year's Sundance Film Festival before receiving an official theatrical release on July 13 of that year.

Burnham based the initial idea of the film on his own struggles with anxiety, and didn't find sufficient funding for two years. He strove to make its depiction of Generation Z as authentic and realistic as possible, and as a result the MPAA gave the film an R rating upon release that elicited controversy as it would prevent actual eighth graders from seeing it. In response, Creator/{{A24}} organized completely free unrated screenings across the US.

* SocialMediaIsBad: The film blatantly shows the negative effects of social media on Kayla's psyche.

* BaitTheDog: Downplayed with Kayla's crush, Aiden. He's entirely neutral with her at the pool party, but another girl picks up on this infatuation and warns Kayla that he's only interested in nudes. Kayla absorbs the [[BeAWhoreToGetYourMan opposite lesson]] and makes him privy to the existence of a dirty pictures folder on her phone that she'd be willing to share with a boyfriend. He's enticed at the prospect, and pushes for details of other sexual activity she's engaged in, but Kayla thinks better of acting on it and Aiden makes no active effort to pursue the topic. While decidedly not a great guy to date, he's ultimately just a harmless, horny kid.

* BaitTheDog: Downplayed with Kayla's crush, Aiden. He's entirely neutral with her at the pool party, but another girl picks up on this infatuation and warns Kayla that he's only interested in nudes. Kayla absorbs the [[BeAWhoreToGetYourMan opposite lesson]] and makes him privy to the existence of a dirty pictures folder on her phone that she'd be willing to share with a boyfriend. He's enticed at the prospect, and pushes for details of other sexual activity she's engaged in, but Kayla thinks better of acting on it and Aiden makes no active effort to pursue the topic. While decidedly not a great guy to crush on, he's ultimately just a harmless, horny kid.

* FiveSecondForeshadowing: While driving Kayla home, Riley claims he Olivia are best friends, which wasn't apparent at the mall. [[spoiler:He likely picked up on Kayla's hero worship of the older girl and played up their closeness to put her at ease.]]

* KarmaHoudini: Riley suffers no consequences for sexually harrassing Kayla, she even begs him to keep the incident a secret.

YoYoPlotPoint: The film has Kayla achieve what is a tremendous breakthrough for her just half an hour into the film: anxious at the pool party to the point of begging her dad to take her home early she instead pulls herself together, goes to sing karaoke in front of the other kids, and is so successful in her newly-forged confidence that even Kennedy [[PhoneaholicTeenager looks up from her phone]]. But as soon as the party ends everything goes back to normal and Kayla is a [[FriendlessBackground friendless loser]], ignored by Kennedy and her clique when she anxiously seeks their approval at school.

* IHaveThisFriend: In one of her [=YouTube=] videos, Kayla talks about a "friend" who everyone thought was kind of weird, but then she came out of her shell a bit and people got to know her a little better and found out she was really cool. As we cut to Kayla walking up to Kennedy's house for the pool party, it's pretty clear that she's talking about herself, and how she hopes this party will go for her.

Burnham based the initial idea of the film off of his own struggles with anxiety, and didn't find sufficient funding for two years. He strove to make its depiction of Generation Z as authentic and realistic as possible, and as a result the MPAA gave the film an R rating upon release that elicited controversy as it would prevent actual eighth graders from seeing it. In response, Creator/{{A24}} organized completely free unrated screenings across the US.

* AbortedArc: it appears briefly as though the film is going to [[CerebusSyndrome take a darker turn]] when Kayla attracts Aiden's attention by telling him she has naked selfies on her phone that she plans to give to the next guy who becomes her boyfriend, but after he asks her whether she does blowjobs she finds she cannot even practice on a banana, and the plot arc disappears from the story.

* FriendlessBackground: we see early in the film that Kayla routinely gets few or zero views on her youtube videos, and until Gabe befriends her at the pool party there's no evidence she has any friends at all.
* HairFlip: Aiden has a slow motion hair flip at the pool party.

* IJustWantToHaveFriends: when Kayla is writing a list of her aspirations we see that half her list is variations on this theme (plus the desire to get a boyfriend).

* MostWritersAreAdults: {{Averted|Trope}}, and one of the common points of praise for the film. There's a lot of [[RealisticDictionIsUnrealistic naturalistic dialogue]], with Kayla in particular demonstrating a lot of hesitancy and uncertainty. Her [=YouTube=] videos are rambling and difficult to follow, and even her climactic TheReasonYouSuckSpeech is full of disfluency and repetition, with the resolution coming from the fact that she stands up for herself at all, rather than the eloquence of the speech itself.

** Kayla's dad's [[HelicopterParents overprotective dad]] moment when he watches Kayla with her friends at the mall infuriates her and causes her to accept a ride from Riley rather than get a ride with her dad, resulting in her being sexually harrassed.

* PrecisionFStrike: normally mild-mannered Kayla tosses off s-bombs when she breaks her cell phone.

* ThisLoserIsYou: the film positions Kayla as a socially awkward, [[IJustWantToHaveFriends friendless loser]] going through a ComingOfAgeStory with universal appeal to the intended audience, while taking pains to avoid making her unsympathetic via a negative attitude. Kayla does not complain about her situation, her anxiety is expressed mostly nonverbally, and she consistently expresses her emotions via concern for others, not herself - making youtube videos with the intent of helping her (non-existent) audience, asking her dad if she makes him feel sad.

YoYoPlotPoint: the film has Kayla achieve what is a tremendous breakthrough for her just half an hour into the film: anxious at the pool party to the point of begging her dad to take her home early she instead pulls herself together, goes to sing karaoke in front of the other kids, and is so successful in her newly-forged confidence that even Kennedy [[PhoneaholicTeenager looks up from her phone]]. But as soon as the party ends everything goes back to normal and Kayla is a [[FriendlessBackground friendless loser]], ignored by Kennedy and her clique when she anxiously seeks their approval at school.

** Kayla's dad's OverprotectiveDad moment when he watches Kayla with her friends at the mall infuriates her and causes her to accept a ride from Riley rather than get a ride with her dad, resulting in her being sexually harrassed.

* PrecisionFStrike: normally mild-mannered Kayla curses when she breaks her cell phone.

** Kayla's dad's PapaWolf moment when he watches Kayla with her friends at the mall infuriates her and causes her to accept a ride from Riley rather than get a ride with her dad, resulting in her being sexually harrassed.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: the girl who warns Kayla against crushing on Aiden because he dumped Chelsea when she wouldn't send him naked photos only inspires Kayla to get Aiden's attention by telling him she has naked selfies on her phone that she's saving to give the next guy who becomes her boyfriend. Fortunately [[AbortedArc it doesn't go any further than that.]]

* BlatantLies: Kayla, having been caught by her father about to practice fellatio on a banana, tries to sell the idea that she was planning to eat it, a pretense she cannot keep up because her dislike of bananas is legendary.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: the girl who warns Kayla against crushing on Aiden because he dumped Chelsea when she wouldn't send him naked photos only inspires Kayla to get Aiden's attention by telling him she has naked selfies on her phone that she's saving to give the next guy who becomes her boyfriend. Fortunately [[AbortedPlotArc it doesn't go any further than that.]]

* CaptainObvious: Kayla degenerates to this when she can't think of anything better to say. She tells Aiden "Sometimes my phone runs out of batteries, too!" And Kennedy "I have a shirt, too!"