At what point do the rose tinted glasses come off the kids' faces to show them the world for what it really is? Even the kids born into destitute and distress do not fully realize the conditions they live in until something better is brought into the world and juxtaposed to theirs giving them the first inking of 'difference'. And where better to have these differences magnified and amplified than in a school, and when better to have the first feeling of "us vs them" bubble up in their developing brains than during the initial throes of adolescence. With changing bodies, hormones making their presence felt for the first time, the brain slowly realizing the wide chasms that exist between absolutes, the period is just a thick soup of emotional alchemy.... And all this, before smartphones and social media are thrown into the mixture to make an already volatile situation readily combustible.
At its heart, the need to connect to the next person, online or otherwise, is for one's own validatation, of ideas, thoughts, interests and hobbies, which basically form the measure of a person. And the constant and never ending need for this validation, however narcissistic it is, in turn propels the social media engine. The reason why kids take to it so easily is the same one why they pick up their first cigarette, one, to fit in, and two, to relieve (social) anxiety. The assurance that there is someone else out there in the cyber world, agreeing to their views, however far-fetched they are, approving of their tastes, however off the mainsream tracks they are, and joining them in their collective jubilations, judgements and outrages, allows the kids (particulary the outcast ones in the regular world) to have a sense of normalcy and self-worth, even if it is in a made up world of bits and bytes. Social media has thus become a surrogate parent for the kid clan in the current climate where they can bare open their souls, even if the judgement is just as swift, xharsh and vitriolic, at which time, like to a real parent, they can simply shut it off and move on to another place in the wide world web and seek solace.x
'Eighth grade' is not a typical kids' movie about angst and alienation, in the same vein as John Hughes' movies are about the 80's generation. There is very little that is cinematic or dramatic about it, and it could as well double as a documentary about an entire generation growing up on the fringes of social acceptance. It is a very intimate portrait, adding some social commentary in a very subtle way, of an awkward eighth grader who is trying her best desparately to fit in in the real world, failing which she moves into the virtual world to find her voice. This is not an airbrushed (or digitally altered) Hollywood kid hoping to be heard while she indulges in a lot of smart, adult, cynic talk. not the clumsy underdog kid wishing to go out with the heart throb of her class but drowned out in her own awkwardness to eventually rise like a phoenix and soar above it all. In fact, everything about her screams normal and ordinary, her walk, talk, demeanor and composure. There is little to nothing that stands out or sets her apart in a sea of ordinariness. How can then such person find a voice in a world, both real and virtual, that only celebrates and rewards the extremes according them the attention and the much needed validation? In the American public school system where differences are overlooked in the name of individuality (main argument against school uniforms), where marginalization is rampant across race, class, and social lines, where discipline is often traded for individual expression, the process of growing up is truly Darwinian, in it, only the finest survive and the rest continue to struggle. It is amazing that the words spoken by the kid(s) in the movie are indeed scripted and not just improvised, for their reptitive nature and staccato style. And the performance of the lead character, an actual 13 year old, who carries the entire movie on her tender shoulders is worthy of the bald statue come awards time. 'Eighth grade' is probably the finest movie in recent times about the social life of a school kid told with the kind of brutal honesty only seen in documentaries or stand-up comedies.
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