EIGHTH GRADE (2018)
A brilliant character study about being socially awkward during a time in life when being socially accepted means everything, and how that works for young people in the age of social media.
Of course, "misfits" stories have been told many times before but it's usually in the comedy or thriller genre, or the victory of the underdog who transforms into the most desirable person.
The first thing to notice is the surprisingly mundane display of social media and cellphones. One gets the idea that these young people don't use it because they love it, but simply because they know it.
Main character Kayla has her own youtube channel with the purpose to help other people to overcome the obstacles in growing up "successfully" but it looks more like a sounding board to herself.
Objectively, her videos suck big time. There's a lot of "like...like...like" and "whatever" in it - specifically those things that sound so irritatingly modern, and yet somehow it doesn't reflect badly on her character. If anything, I think there's something endearing about it.
In the world of puberty, parents are usually the antagonists, but here's it emphasized by the father who isn't part of her social media life.
Kayla's father is a great guy who gives her all the space she needs but that still doesn't get him off the hook.
There's a funny scene in which he drives her to (something, I don't remember) and he's acting "weird" but only from her difficult, pubertal point of view.
He has to look like "this" but not too obviously, he has to be quiet but not freakishly quiet, and this goes on and on.
While
some comedy of the misfit/wannabe is inherent, Elsie Fisher's phenomenal performance also makes it a very stressful experience, and I'm sure that's what it was meant to be.
She never overdoes it but she makes it very easy to see what she thinks and feels.
Not all of us have been this person, but I think many of us have at least experienced what it feels like to be lonely in the company of people.
When the hope to connect fades away there's the urgency to make sure that nobody notices, which, paradoxically, is even more difficult when you're being ignored.
Basically, it requires you to be visible and invisible simultaneously, and while the hysteria inside is building up you find yourself laughing a little bit too loudly when someone cracks a lame joke.
I also loved actor Jake Ryan in the role of Gabe, sort of a mini-Dustin Hoffman.
While I'm not a big fan of emotional sledgehammer pop-song-over-montage-scenes, I was simply blown away by the gorgeous Orinoco Flow.
I've always loved the song but sometimes I need to hear it in a very unexpected context to appreciate it even more.
Eventually she does get a bit stronger but certainly not in a victorious or glamorous way.
Apart from being a beautifully difficult film I think it's also a great reference point to "being young in the first decades of the 21st century". Well, assuming things will change.
PRIDE (2014)
"God, I missed disco" says Dominic West, and that basically sums up the whole film.
Queer As Folk meets
Mamma Mia! in this prefabricated, glossy crowd-pleaser that leaves no stone or cliché unturned.
But I'm sure it was nice to leave the cinema with the warm feeling of a pat on the back.
I feel like rewatching THE SQUARE because Dominic West needs to be punished for what he did in this lazy, cookie-cutter piece of British cinema.
