What a HORRIBLE Daughter!!!

I was all set to enjoy Eighth Grade, which was close to getting an Original Screenplay nomination this year at the Oscars. But I hated the main character so much I had to stop watching, and then resume.

Elsie Fisher plays Kayla, a girl who is devoid of any personality. She cares more about her lame social media pages then connecting with someone who actually cares about her- her FATHER! It would have been better if perhaps the Dad was abusive, not there a lot, a workaholic. But he was actually very nurturing and kind, and she writes him off at dinner like he's a jerk. Sorry, but unless you grow up in environments where the parents ARE horrible- this girl's behavior makes no sense. She not only comes off odd, she comes off very stupid. No social skills, but on her YouTube channel she lies about how to be social outside of school. She says "like um" over and over, and I could go as far as to say she was mentally ill.

Plenty of girls this age are caught up on Instagram, Snapchat, and Selfies. But they manage. This girl doesn't have any reason to be so detached and oblivious considering she comes from a loving home. Again, her treatment of her father was disgusting. She needed a spanking and no dinner that night. She needs major therapy as she clearly is a loser who won't even put the effort in to BE SOCIAL or likable. Yet she yearns for it all hours of the night, and tells fibs on her channel that nobody subscribes to.

I did appreciate the fact that the movie actually casts REAL kids who are eighth grade age. And not 25 year-olds pretending to be. It had a very rural and realistic approach to what it's like to be in junior high. The assembly especially was spot on- with the principal and the other teacher talking whilst most of the kids are bored and not listening.

But Kayla is a hopeless case. Where's the mother? And she really should have been put in her place for the awful way she brushed her father off. AGAIN- if he was a drunk, an abuser or someone not kind- I would get it. But he's so nice to her. And she could care less. Similar to Thora Birch in American Beauty (1999). I hated her too, as Spacey's character was a very honest father who loved her (unlike the fake mother), and she pushed him aside.

If the main character in this movie was more likable, I would have enjoyed it more. But I found myself not rooting for her. She deserved to be an outcast at school; she was a selfish weirdo.