If you have a soul, you probably cried while watching Eighth Grade. If you have a soul and were ever a young girl, you probably felt the movie in your bones, and that’s why it was so great to see the movie and its writer/director, Bo Burnham, win this year’s Writers Guild of America award for original screenplay.
For so long we, as women, were told the coming-of-age stories of men but were rarely given films that focused on our own struggles in growing up. We were told that the experience was the same, when that is very much not the case.
From Inside Out to Eighth Grade, we’re starting to see the shift in sharing the coming-of-age experience from different perspectives. So, is it surprising that Eighth Grade isn’t getting the Academy recognition it deserves, as 2014’s Boyhood did? Absolutely not. Boyhood is a coming-of-age tale we’ve seen over and over again, but it focuses its energy on a white boy being raised in America, so of course, the Oscars ate it up.
Eighth Grade gave us a unique perspective on the female experience, and while yes, she was a white girl growing up in suburbia, there was an aspect to the film that made it so many of us could find something to relate to. Whether it was the kids that protagonist Kayla found herself around, or her dad just trying to make life easy for his daughter, there was always something you could cling to while watching the film.
Yes, it’s a bit unusual that the 28-year-old writer/director man mastered the experience of a young girl growing up, but it comes down to his writing of Kayla and recognizing that, while similar, men and women have different cultural upbringings. So, his win is a big deal because (a) the Academy didn’t even recognize the movie and for the Oscars, and (b) maybe it will usher in a new way of viewing coming-of-age stories.
The most telling aspect of this win is that it’s being described as a win over Vice and Green Book—you know, two movies focused on the male experience with male lead characters that were both recognized as Oscar nominees.
“To the other nominees in the category: “Have fun at the Oscars, losers!” says WGA original-screenplay winner Bo Burnham, who was snubbed by the Academy. “How is this happening??” pic.twitter.com/fstYSFOHQG
— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) February 18, 2019
Eighth Grade is fun, fresh, and digs its claws into your heart and remains there, because it shows experiences that many of us can relate to yet almost never get to see onscreen. Vice doesn’t have that power, and sure, it’s a different kind of movie, but that doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be some kind of empathy in it. After seeing Vice, I didn’t care what happened to Dick Cheney, and he’s a real person. (That may not help in his case, actually.)
So, should the Academy have recognized Bo Burnham and his work? Yes, most definitely, and we’re glad someone noticed.
(image: a24)
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