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| Scene from Eighth Grade (2018) |
In case you didn't know, A24 is one of the great purveyors of modern cinema. Since 2013, the studio has found a way to innovate independent cinema by turning each release into an event. As a result, A24 A-to-Z will be an ongoing series that looks at every release from the studio by analyzing its production history, release, criticisms, and any awards attention that it might've received. Join me on a quest to explore the modern heroes of cinema by exploring every hit and miss that comes with that magnificent logo. They may not all be great, but they more than make A24 what it is and what it will hopefully continue to be for years to come.
Released: August 3, 2018
Release Number: 69
Directed By: Bo Burnham
Starring: Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton, Emily Robinson
Plot: An introverted teenage girl tries to survive the last week of her disastrous eighth grade year before leaving to start high school.
With exception to Hereditary and First Reformed, A24 had yet to have a major breakout film in their 2018 line-up. There had been a few films that appealed to niche markets, but none that really gained traction to put them on the path to Oscar glory. It's what made director Bo Burnham's Eighth Grade immediately interesting. Not only was it the directorial debut of a YouTube star, but it would be a film that captured the teen experience arguably better than any film had in years. It had the awards buzz as well as an endorsement from former teen idol Molly Ringwald, having many believe that it was one of the scariest, most accurate depictions of youth in the modern era. With a memorable performance by Elsie Fisher, the film was what the studio needed to remind audiences that they could still produce a film that was unconventional, yet still resonated with a wide enough audience.
The story begins with Burnham, who at the start of conceptualizing the story was a YouTube star best known for his musical comedy. He did tours and gained a following that helped him stand out in the industry. However, it wasn't until 2013 when he began having panic attacks that he began to think of expressing himself in a longer visual format. He also cites an experience of watching a teenage girl by herself at the mall taking pictures for inspiration. He wondered why she was so self-conscious, especially when nobody was around. Was she presenting a message to a very small fanbase? It's what kicked off the idea for what was temporarily called The Coolest Girl in the World. He had several protagonists when he began writing in 2014, but centered on a girl because he didn't want to feel like he was projecting his anxieties that overtly. He would watch YouTube videos of teenage girls, looking for inspiration for how to capture their mannerisms and dialogue. After 2016, when he believed that he was successful enough in his career, he pitched the idea to studios before finding Scott Rudin and A24 wanting to work with the first-timer.
He had settled on eighth grade as the central theme of his film because he believed it was a pivotal point in life, where people developed their interests. He also wanted to explore how social media and technology played an impact on a teenager's day-to-day. This included some risque moments, such as references to fellatio and nude pictures, but were all done tastefully as to reflect the world that the eighth grade audience actually lived in. Fisher, who had difficulty landing roles in spite of her voice work on films like Despicable Me and the TV series Masha and the Bear. She found so much of the character fascinating and thus sought out the role. Burnham was attracted to her performance and cast her, acquiring her mannerisms along the way. Her father, played by Josh Hamilton, was also cast because he had a dad-vibe to him. Many of the students and faculty who attended Suffern Middle School in New York appeared in the film and tried out, saying things like eczema was their talent, and eating a bell pepper like an apple - all of which Burnham allowed.
The film was shot over 27 days in Suffern, New York in 2017. With some of the scenes featuring the aforementioned taboos, there were occasionally closed sets and discussion with the actors to make sure that they were comfortable. Fisher's father would find one scene labeled "truth or dare" to be a bit too controversial, but eventually agreed with Burnham on the project. Fisher's mannerisms were put into the script, including her many YouTube videos and her penchant desire to say "Gucci" at the end of a sentence. Burnham would listen to his actors, believing them when they would say things such as that nobody used Facebook anymore. As a result, many of the scenes used feature fake Instagram accounts, and text messages were filmed on the phone and not through flourished effects. It was also said that Apple was going to give them computers to use for free, but objected to a scene where an Apple phone was broken. As a result, Burnham had to use the crew's materials to compensate. The film was completed in-between Fisher's eighth grade graduation and the start of her high school years.
He sought assistance from first-time composer Anna Meredith. He requested that she not use a pretty score while also believing that synthesized scores were often male-driven. It was difficult for Meredith due to her inexperience, but she found a way to capture the rugged feel. The film was also finished editing days before its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. It received major acclaim and added Burnham to the list of first-time directors from A24 that would be met with major acclaim (Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird was simultaneously on its path to several Oscar nominations). Before its theatrical release, Burnham shared artwork from the film on his social media accounts, confusing everyone due to lack of contexts. As a result, the build was finally starting up. The film opened in four theaters, averaging $63,071 per screen. It beat Isle of Dogs for best per-screen average and wouldn't be beaten until September's Free Solo. With a budget of $2 million, the film would gross $14.3 million.
In a moment of controversy, the film received an R-Rating that hung over its release. Given that Eighth Grade was about teenagers that were much too young to see an R-Rated film, this created a loophole. It was a rating entirely given due to the comments of nude photos and fellatio despite not actually showing anything vulgar. Burnham and A24 refused to fight the rating because they wanted authenticity. To combat this, they chose instead to host free unrated screenings of the film in various states across the United States. This lead to some positive buzz, especially since Burnham believed that it was a positive experience for eighth graders to see a film depicting their struggles.
The road to acclaim was paved with success, with many praising Burnham's keen eye for the teenage experience. Fisher was also an early favorite for a potential Best Actress nomination, with many finding her performance horrifically accurate. Among the celebrities who praised the film was Molly Ringwald of The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles fame. She would claim that "I just saw [Eighth Grade] and thought it was the best film about adolescence I've seen in a long time. Maybe ever." By circumstance, this lead to an interview between Ringwald and Fisher on The A24 Podcast. Burnham would also make the interviewing rounds, most notably appearing on WTF with Marc Maron to discuss the inspiration for the film in great detail. It was a word of mouth type of success, and it's what helped lead it to several awards nominations, including a few Gotham Awards and a Golden Globe nomination for Fisher's acting. Yet when it came to potential Oscar nominations, it failed to get any, making First Reformed the only film to not get "snubbed" from A24's 2018 line-up.
It would also end up being critically acclaimed by many who saw the film, believing that they related closely to the material (especially women). On critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, it would earn a very impressive 99%. Those leading the acclaim included Erica Ciccarone of Nashville Scene, who noted that "The movie is rich with details that ring true, like a kid's quiet reverie as he sniffs a Magic Marker, or Kayla's crush turning his eyelids inside out in a swimming pool." Allison Rose of FlickDirect also praised the film, suggesting that "Though the cast is young; being made up of mostly teenagers; they are well versed and trained and Burnham elicits terrific performances from then all." In a moment of rarity, there wasn't any strong dissenting opinion. Film critics like Katey Rich of Vanity Fair would also go on to call the film one of the Best of 2018. The film also would appear on the American Film Institute's Top 10 films of the year.
While it wouldn't be the last A24 movie of 2018, it was arguably the last major awards contender of the group, save for Jonah Hill's Mid90's. Still, it was a film that connected with audiences and survived on positive buzz, which was pretty good given that most of A24's recent films tended to filter out after a few weeks in 2018. Still, it's the start of a promising film career for both Fisher and Burnham, with the latter breaking the cursed trend of YouTube stars making bad movies. It was a gamble that reminded audiences why A24 were masters of independent cinema. The same couldn't be said about their next film, which featured recent Oscar-nominee Timothee Chalamet in a direct-to-video crime film that went largely ignored, in part because of Eighth Grade's hold on the public conversation. Hot Summer Nights may have been released at the right time based on the title, but it wasn't quite heating anything else up.
Up Next: Hot Summer Nights (2018)
With exception to Hereditary and First Reformed, A24 had yet to have a major breakout film in their 2018 line-up. There had been a few films that appealed to niche markets, but none that really gained traction to put them on the path to Oscar glory. It's what made director Bo Burnham's Eighth Grade immediately interesting. Not only was it the directorial debut of a YouTube star, but it would be a film that captured the teen experience arguably better than any film had in years. It had the awards buzz as well as an endorsement from former teen idol Molly Ringwald, having many believe that it was one of the scariest, most accurate depictions of youth in the modern era. With a memorable performance by Elsie Fisher, the film was what the studio needed to remind audiences that they could still produce a film that was unconventional, yet still resonated with a wide enough audience.
The story begins with Burnham, who at the start of conceptualizing the story was a YouTube star best known for his musical comedy. He did tours and gained a following that helped him stand out in the industry. However, it wasn't until 2013 when he began having panic attacks that he began to think of expressing himself in a longer visual format. He also cites an experience of watching a teenage girl by herself at the mall taking pictures for inspiration. He wondered why she was so self-conscious, especially when nobody was around. Was she presenting a message to a very small fanbase? It's what kicked off the idea for what was temporarily called The Coolest Girl in the World. He had several protagonists when he began writing in 2014, but centered on a girl because he didn't want to feel like he was projecting his anxieties that overtly. He would watch YouTube videos of teenage girls, looking for inspiration for how to capture their mannerisms and dialogue. After 2016, when he believed that he was successful enough in his career, he pitched the idea to studios before finding Scott Rudin and A24 wanting to work with the first-timer.
He had settled on eighth grade as the central theme of his film because he believed it was a pivotal point in life, where people developed their interests. He also wanted to explore how social media and technology played an impact on a teenager's day-to-day. This included some risque moments, such as references to fellatio and nude pictures, but were all done tastefully as to reflect the world that the eighth grade audience actually lived in. Fisher, who had difficulty landing roles in spite of her voice work on films like Despicable Me and the TV series Masha and the Bear. She found so much of the character fascinating and thus sought out the role. Burnham was attracted to her performance and cast her, acquiring her mannerisms along the way. Her father, played by Josh Hamilton, was also cast because he had a dad-vibe to him. Many of the students and faculty who attended Suffern Middle School in New York appeared in the film and tried out, saying things like eczema was their talent, and eating a bell pepper like an apple - all of which Burnham allowed.
The film was shot over 27 days in Suffern, New York in 2017. With some of the scenes featuring the aforementioned taboos, there were occasionally closed sets and discussion with the actors to make sure that they were comfortable. Fisher's father would find one scene labeled "truth or dare" to be a bit too controversial, but eventually agreed with Burnham on the project. Fisher's mannerisms were put into the script, including her many YouTube videos and her penchant desire to say "Gucci" at the end of a sentence. Burnham would listen to his actors, believing them when they would say things such as that nobody used Facebook anymore. As a result, many of the scenes used feature fake Instagram accounts, and text messages were filmed on the phone and not through flourished effects. It was also said that Apple was going to give them computers to use for free, but objected to a scene where an Apple phone was broken. As a result, Burnham had to use the crew's materials to compensate. The film was completed in-between Fisher's eighth grade graduation and the start of her high school years.
He sought assistance from first-time composer Anna Meredith. He requested that she not use a pretty score while also believing that synthesized scores were often male-driven. It was difficult for Meredith due to her inexperience, but she found a way to capture the rugged feel. The film was also finished editing days before its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. It received major acclaim and added Burnham to the list of first-time directors from A24 that would be met with major acclaim (Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird was simultaneously on its path to several Oscar nominations). Before its theatrical release, Burnham shared artwork from the film on his social media accounts, confusing everyone due to lack of contexts. As a result, the build was finally starting up. The film opened in four theaters, averaging $63,071 per screen. It beat Isle of Dogs for best per-screen average and wouldn't be beaten until September's Free Solo. With a budget of $2 million, the film would gross $14.3 million.
In a moment of controversy, the film received an R-Rating that hung over its release. Given that Eighth Grade was about teenagers that were much too young to see an R-Rated film, this created a loophole. It was a rating entirely given due to the comments of nude photos and fellatio despite not actually showing anything vulgar. Burnham and A24 refused to fight the rating because they wanted authenticity. To combat this, they chose instead to host free unrated screenings of the film in various states across the United States. This lead to some positive buzz, especially since Burnham believed that it was a positive experience for eighth graders to see a film depicting their struggles.
The road to acclaim was paved with success, with many praising Burnham's keen eye for the teenage experience. Fisher was also an early favorite for a potential Best Actress nomination, with many finding her performance horrifically accurate. Among the celebrities who praised the film was Molly Ringwald of The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles fame. She would claim that "I just saw [Eighth Grade] and thought it was the best film about adolescence I've seen in a long time. Maybe ever." By circumstance, this lead to an interview between Ringwald and Fisher on The A24 Podcast. Burnham would also make the interviewing rounds, most notably appearing on WTF with Marc Maron to discuss the inspiration for the film in great detail. It was a word of mouth type of success, and it's what helped lead it to several awards nominations, including a few Gotham Awards and a Golden Globe nomination for Fisher's acting. Yet when it came to potential Oscar nominations, it failed to get any, making First Reformed the only film to not get "snubbed" from A24's 2018 line-up.
It would also end up being critically acclaimed by many who saw the film, believing that they related closely to the material (especially women). On critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, it would earn a very impressive 99%. Those leading the acclaim included Erica Ciccarone of Nashville Scene, who noted that "The movie is rich with details that ring true, like a kid's quiet reverie as he sniffs a Magic Marker, or Kayla's crush turning his eyelids inside out in a swimming pool." Allison Rose of FlickDirect also praised the film, suggesting that "Though the cast is young; being made up of mostly teenagers; they are well versed and trained and Burnham elicits terrific performances from then all." In a moment of rarity, there wasn't any strong dissenting opinion. Film critics like Katey Rich of Vanity Fair would also go on to call the film one of the Best of 2018. The film also would appear on the American Film Institute's Top 10 films of the year.
While it wouldn't be the last A24 movie of 2018, it was arguably the last major awards contender of the group, save for Jonah Hill's Mid90's. Still, it was a film that connected with audiences and survived on positive buzz, which was pretty good given that most of A24's recent films tended to filter out after a few weeks in 2018. Still, it's the start of a promising film career for both Fisher and Burnham, with the latter breaking the cursed trend of YouTube stars making bad movies. It was a gamble that reminded audiences why A24 were masters of independent cinema. The same couldn't be said about their next film, which featured recent Oscar-nominee Timothee Chalamet in a direct-to-video crime film that went largely ignored, in part because of Eighth Grade's hold on the public conversation. Hot Summer Nights may have been released at the right time based on the title, but it wasn't quite heating anything else up.
Up Next: Hot Summer Nights (2018)
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