{"id":4568,"date":"2018-10-23T11:45:37","date_gmt":"2018-10-23T11:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/?p=4568"},"modified":"2018-10-23T15:40:47","modified_gmt":"2018-10-23T15:40:47","slug":"eighth-grade-soars-but-soundtrack-falters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/2018\/10\/23\/eighth-grade-soars-but-soundtrack-falters\/","title":{"rendered":"Eighth Grade Soars, But Soundtrack Falters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Comedian and writer Bo Burnham made his\ndirectorial debut this past summer with an absolute knockout, delivering a film\nabout the worst time in most adolescent lives: the eighth grade. <em>Eighth Grade <\/em>brutally dunks you into the\nworld of Kayla Doyle on her last week of middle school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Elsie Fisher, an actual eighth grader at the time, is a spectacular lead. In the opening scene we see a young girl awkwardly film a video for YouTube, exactly as you would expect from the average eighth grader. As highlighted by subtle details like vocal fillers and nervous habits, her role feels too real to watch sometimes. The ensemble cast supports Fisher beautifully&#8211; with performances from Josh Hamilton as her aloof, but lovable father and Olivia Robinson as a down-to-earth high school mentor. From scenes where Kayla yells at her dad for \u201clooking weird\u201d at her, to a conversation with her friend about Rick and Morty over McNuggets, Burnham\u2019s writing places you perfectly in Kayla\u2019s shoes as one of the most accurate portrayals of a time usually forgotten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the film\u2019s ability to immerse you in\nthe modern middle school experience, it has one aspect that seems to fall\nshort: the soundtrack. Most of the film is supported by aggressive and abrasive\nsynth music. The film\u2019s score is done by Anna Meredith, a Scottish experimental\ncomposer, and her music seems better suited to an indie video game rather than\na feature film. Her track \u201cNautilus\u201d is one of the few tracks that stand out.\nThe undulating synth suggests that of a heartbeat quickly climbing as Kayla\nbraces herself to face her peers in a tense scene. The others, such as \u201cStay\nCalm\u201d and \u201cHigh School\u201d, just feel distracting, and they have more of a\nresemblance to royalty free music than we\u2019d like to admit. The music actively\ntakes away from the immersive experience that the film tries so hard to create,\nwhich is a real shame&#8211;in portions where there is no score, the audience is\nmuch more enveloped in the middle school drama unfolding before them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That being said, the sound design overall is fantastic. The scenes involving Kayla\u2019s crush, Aiden, are extremely well done. His introduction features a sample of \u201cFuture Club\u201d by Perturbator. This dramatic catwalk-esque theme follows him for various scenes throughout. Although clich\u00e9, it does a good job of reassuring the viewer that Aiden is in fact, <em>all that <\/em>to the protagonist. Another strength is in the use of silence. A prime example of this is in the infamous pool scene. Here Kayla is dropped into the worst thing imaginable for a tweenager&#8211;scattered throughout a backyard pool party are the prettiest and most popular kids in middle school. This brings all of Kayla\u2019s insecurities to the forefront; she\u2019s uncomfortable with not only her social standing, but also her body, and both of these are displayed out in the open. As she opens the door, the dramatic music cuts out as she surveys the scene. This hammers in the point that she feels like an absolute fish out of water. Silence is also used effectively in the scene directly following Kayla\u2019s ride home from the mall with her new high school friends. The protagonist has an early taste of what is all too common for teenage girls&#8211;after an older boy tries to get Kayla to fool around, she storms into her room. As the door slams, the movie is silent as viewers let out a groan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The day to day scenes in the school exhibit\nbubblegum popping, pencil chewing, and brace bands snapping. Real life isn\u2019t\nsupported by a soundtrack, so does <em>Eighth\nGrade <\/em>need to be?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Comedian and writer Bo Burnham made his directorial debut this past summer with an absolute knockout, delivering a film about the worst time in most adolescent lives: the eighth grade. Eighth Grade brutally dunks you into the world of Kayla Doyle on her last week of middle school. Elsie Fisher, an actual eighth grader at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":4573,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[530,258],"tags":[586,587,100,60,576,129,497],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Eighth Grade Soars, But Soundtrack Falters - SCAD Radio<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/2018\/10\/23\/eighth-grade-soars-but-soundtrack-falters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Eighth Grade Soars, But Soundtrack Falters - SCAD Radio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Comedian and writer Bo Burnham made his directorial debut this past summer with an absolute knockout, delivering a film about the worst time in most adolescent lives: the eighth grade. 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