Eighth Grade

"Based on the most awkward year of your life."

2018 1h 34m EN

👍

7.1

SOLID

🔥

99%

CERTIFIED FRESH

💯

METACRITIC

⭐

7.3

IMDB

★7.1TMDB · 1,723🍅99%Rotten Tomatoes●85Metacritic★7.3IMDB · 86,006

ComedyDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Thirteen-year-old Kayla endures the tidal wave of contemporary suburban adolescence as she makes her way through the last week of middle school — the end of her thus far disastrous eighth grade year — before she begins high school.

“Based on the most awkward year of your life.”

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Cast

Elsie Fisher
Kayla Day
Josh Hamilton
Mark Day
Emily Robinson
Olivia
Jake Ryan
Gabe
Daniel Zolghadri
Riley
Fred Hechinger
Trevor
Imani Lewis
Aniyah
Luke Prael
Aiden

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Bo Burnham
Writers: Bo Burnham
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $2.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 6.8× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 8 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Bo Burnham, shot by Andrew Wehde. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Anna Meredith. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Jennifer Lilly shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Elsie Fisher and Josh Hamilton and Emily Robinson carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Based on the most awkward year of your life.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Bo Burnham directs. Andrew Wehde behind the camera. Anna Meredith scores. Jennifer Lilly cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $2.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Made its money back 6.8× over at the box office.
3Released 8 years ago.
4Directed by Bo Burnham, shot by Andrew Wehde. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Anna Meredith. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Jennifer Lilly shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Elsie Fisher and Josh Hamilton and Emily Robinson carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Based on the most awkward year of your life.".
9IMDB entry: tt7014006 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 8 themes, including "adolescence", "identity crisis", "coming of age", "teenage girl".
11Released under 23 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Andrew Wehde
Original score: Anna Meredith
Editing: Jennifer Lilly
Production design: Sam Lisenco
Costume design: Mitchell Travers
Makeup / hair: Heidi Pakdel
Sound: Skip Lievsay
Runtime: 94 min · 1h 34m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $2,000,000
Box office: $13,539,709
Return: 677% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Eighth Grade (2018)
Rotten Tomatoes: 99% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 85/100
IMDB rating: 7.3/10 · 86,006 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

60 wins & 91 nominations total

National Board of Review: Top Ten Films

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Bo Burnham

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Gimly2019-01-20
★ 6/10
I can't elevate Eighth Grade to the status that my peers have, it just wasn't all that to me. But it was still very good, and very real, that tangible sort of youth that comes with dedication to the format. Final rating:★★★ - I liked it. Would personally recommend you give it a go.
beyondthecineramadome2022-06-20
★ 10/10
Full review: <a>https://www.tinakakadelis.com/beyond-the-cinerama-dome/2021/12/28/its-brutal-out-here-eighth-gradenbspreview<a> Internet comedian and humorous songwriter Bo Burnham in the role of writer and director of a movie about an eighth-grade girl sounds, on the surface, like quite a mismatch. What could Burnham know about the very specific horrors of being a thirteen-year-old girl in the internet age? It turns out that Burnham was the perfect person for the job. Eighth Grade is both a comedy and a horror film. It’s an honest exploration of the anxiety of middle school and the out-of-body experience that is puberty. Burnham based the main character, Kayla (Elsie Fisher), on his own experiences with panic attacks and anxiety. He has explained that those feelings of anxiety remind him of the terrors of his own middle school experience.
CinemaSerf2025-02-21
★ 7/10
Elsie Fisher turns in a strong performance here as the teenage “Kayla” coming to terms with all of those uncertainties we all feel as puberty beckons. Coupled with her own personal issues, she’s in her last year of what could loosely be referred to a children’s school and is maybe just a little over-reliant on validation from social media to get her through her days. There’s no mum on the horizon, but her dad (Josh Hamilton) - who seems to spend a fair amount of time appearing in her bedroom doorway at night whilst she is surfing the internet, cares deeply for his daughter and is determined to help. That’s of course assuming either of them know if and how he can. Of course there are boys in this mix too, and like with many teenage crushes her’s with “Aiden” (Luke Prael) isn’t reciprocated nor is that of “Gabe” (Jake Ryan) with her. Maybe, though, it’s worth her considering that despite the more obvious confidences on display, many of her contemporaries are in exactly the same boat as her, they just display their emotions differently. It’s quite a tough watch this as it rather brutally and honestly displays just how different it is for kids nowadays to come to terms with impending adulthood in a limelight of audio and video that didn’t exist when I was that age. Hell, we’d not that long had colour television. The writing has an authenticity to it that can make you squirm with associative embarrassment, it can almost make you want to recoil from the screen - and that is a testament to her effort, but also to an enthusiastic one from Ryan and a considered one from Hamilton. There’s plenty of dark humour here, too, to oil the wheels of her journey of self-discovery and it says as much about the pitfalls of modern day parenting as it does about modern day adolescence. It did make me very glad that I don’t have to survive in their modern world seeking and/or delivering constant approval and appreciation. Worth a watch.