Eighth Grade

Written and Directed by: Bo Burnham
Cast: Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton, Emily Robinson and Missy Yager
Comedy/Drama | 14A for coarse language and sexual content | 94 min. | USA

SCREENING:
Sunday, October 14 – 5:30 pm, Uptown Theatre
Sunday, October 21 – 3:00 pm, Uptown Theatre

Get your tickets here!

“Eighth Grade is personal, uncomfortable, and lovely, a slice-of-life look into current adolescence, our reliance on social media, and growing into oneself.” – Roxana Hadadi, CHESAPEAKE FAMILY MAGAZINE

“An achingly honest film about some of the ghastliest years of adolescence. Funny, tender and endearing.” – Rafer Guzman, NEWSDAY

In his feature film directorial debut, comedian Bo Burnham deftly encapsulates the awkwardness, angst, self-loathing and reinvention that a teenage girl goes through on the cusp of high school. Given that the 27-year-old stand-up comic achieved fame as a teenager himself through YouTube by riffing on his insecurities, he is uniquely capable as the film’s writer and director to tell the story of Kayla, an anxious girl navigating the final days of her eighth grade year. Like Burnham did more than a decade ago, 13-year-old Kayla turns to YouTube to express herself, where she makes advice blogs in which she pretends to have it all together. In reality, Kayla is sullen and silent around her single father and her peers at school, carrying out most of her interactions with her classmates on Instagram and Twitter. Her videos are a clever narrative tool that provide insight into her inner hopes and dreams, much like an inspirational online diary. One of Eighth Grade’s biggest triumphs is in its realism.

6 WINS, 3 NOMINATIONS:
Won – Audience Award, Chicago Critics Film Festival, 2018
Won – Truly Moving Picture Award, Heartland Film, 2018
Won – Audience Award – Best Narrative Feature, San Francisco International Film Festival, 2018
Won – Best Film & Best Actress (Elsie Fisher), Seattle International Film Festival, 2018
Won – Audience Favourite, Sundance Film Festival: London, 2018
Nominated – Grand Jury Prize – Narrative Feature Competition, Dallas International Film Festival, 2018
Nominated – Grand Jury Prize – Dramatic, Sundance Film Festival, 2018