The Gist

Generation Anxiety

In Eighth Grade, the portrait of a middle school girl (Elsie Fisher) by the quarter-life guy (Bo Burnham) who gets it.

Bo Burnham and Elsie Fisher on the set of Eighth Grade.

Linda Kallerus

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After a few eccentric comedy specials, Bo Burnham next turned to his sympathy for the anxieties of middle school girls, and made a movie. If Eighth Grade (starring Elsie Fisher) seems to imitate life so well, it’s because Burnham watched hundreds of vlogs made by today’s junior high generation.

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