Bo Burnham’s “Eighth Grade” is a coming-of-age movie that understands looking confident online and actually feeling confident IRL are two very different assignments.
Watch NowThe back-to-school feed makes it look so easy. New outfit? Ate. Fresh supplies? Color-coded. First-day photo? Somehow taken at 7 a.m. with perfect lighting. Confidence? Allegedly at an all-time high. Then you actually get to school and suddenly you're calculating whether saying “you too” after someone says happy birthday means you need to transfer schools.
That painfully large gap between the person you want everyone to see and the person currently overthinking where to put their hands is exactly where Eighth Grade lives. Bo Burnham’s 2018 coming-of-age movie follows 13-year-old Kayla Day through the final week of middle school as she makes motivational videos about confidence while struggling to find that same confidence offline. Years later, Eighth Grade still feels painfully current: between carefully curated feeds, endless scrolling, and the pressure to make your life look effortlessly put together online, Kayla’s world somehow feels even more familiar now. Painfully familiar. Put-the-phone-down-and-stare-at-the-ceiling familiar.
So while your FYP serves up the picture-perfect version of a new school year, Eighth Grade is here for everything that doesn't make the montage: awkward conversations, questionable crushes, friendship anxiety, and the daily horror of simply being perceived. Consider it one of the more relatable assignments waiting in Tubi’s Back to School collection, where more movies and shows about surviving classrooms, new beginnings, and school-year chaos are ready whenever your own social battery needs a study hall.
Kayla Day would really like you to know that she is confident, cool, and absolutely knows what she's doing. Please do not fact-check that. Fisher captures the hilarious and painfully relatable gap between the confident advice Kayla gives online and the awkward reality of trying to follow it herself. Even at her most uncomfortable, Fisher keeps Kayla sincere, vulnerable, and impossible not to root for.
Mark Day is trying. Like, really trying. Hamilton brings an endearing sincerity to Kayla's well-meaning dad, who wants to understand his daughter even when she would prefer he stop asking questions immediately. Beneath the awkward dad moments, Hamilton makes Mark a warm, grounding presence in Kayla's chaotic little world.
Olivia is the cool older high schooler who does something surprisingly powerful: she makes Kayla feel like she belongs. Robinson gives her an effortless warmth that makes the character's kindness feel genuine rather than performative. For Kayla, Olivia becomes a glimpse at growing up without completely changing who you are first.
Gabe is operating on his own social frequency, and honestly? Good for him. Ryan makes Kayla's unapologetically awkward classmate charming precisely because he isn't desperately trying to impress anyone. In a movie full of teenagers figuring out who they're supposed to be, Gabe is refreshingly comfortable just being Gabe.
“Take a breath, hit record, and pretend confidence came naturally.”
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