Most of the campus youth films in mainland China cater to the audience's curiosity and voyeurism. The state they present is a highlight moment that is difficult for ordinary people to experience and is unusually lacking. It's to make up for what we didn't have, and let's feel the drama moment like a dream.
In other words, they are not real enough and are out of touch with the reality of most ordinary people. Although the movie also pays attention to drama and conflict, the so-called conflict and story tension are not the same as dog blood, car accident and abortion, nor a serious illness, Yingying Yanyan.
For example, this campus youth film, "Eighth Grade", which is very suitable for the actual living conditions of the current youth, realistically presents the campus life and psychological state of ordinary American girls. In recent years, campus youth films have also become one of the key themes of American films.
Last year's hit "Miss Bird", which told the turbulent life of a rebellious high school girl, swept the United States for a while, and was nominated for the Oscar and the Golden Globe Best Picture. It also made the heroine Saoirse Ronan squeeze into the ranks of Hollywood's first-line actresses.
"Miss Bird" is very American, very playful, powerfully written, and charmingly ecstasy. It is the kind of work with obvious highlights and very strong conflicts. On the contrary, this year's "Eighth Grade" has restrained a lot and paid more attention to the portrayal of the characters' hearts, giving us the anxiety and dilemma of a junior high school girl. The selling point of "Eighth Grade" is that it is real.
13-year-old Kayla is in her final year of junior high school before entering high school. According to her own understanding, the entire campus life before the age of 13 was a "failure" for her. She is an invisible person on campus, and because of her "invisibility", she is also considered "weird" by some people.
From the first second, the film has created an image of a protagonist whose inner and outer appearance, psychology and behavior are torn, contradictory, and opposite. The bright line of "Eighth Grade" is Kayla's school life, and the dark line is Kayla's "talking to herself" in her bedroom to her mobile phone and computer screen.
The director of "Eighth Grade", Bo Bonham, is a boy born in the 1990s. With a delicate mind, he is not too out of touch with today's adolescent children. He attaches great importance to the psychological and behavioral impact of the Internet on modern adolescents.
In the film, we see Keira's online identity, a mimetic image, many times. Director Beau Bonham cleverly split the scene with a few of Keira's web selfies. Every self-portrait video is a psychological portrayal, echoing the upcoming plot narrative.
For example, how to define "cool" among students, how to discover oneself, get out of the predicament, take the initiative to step out of one's comfort zone, and make more friends.
To sum up, it is how to improve your current self and integrate into one after another unfamiliar and greedy interpersonal circle.
Integration is the key word in the story of "Eighth Grade". "Eighth grade" is not only the age of the heroine, but also a state of existence, which is related to both time and space. The ignorance and rebellion, anxiety and timidity of adolescence; the change of identity in campus and family life, and the adaptation and catering of geographical and interpersonal circles. Whether to keep the id or release the superego, these are the core issues of "Eighth Grade".
On the one hand, we watched Kayla talking in the video with a sense of integrity and full of self-confidence; in reality, we saw another image of a little girl who was timid and extremely inferior. The strong contrast created a natural conflict tension for the narrative. , to save inertia. In the huge contrast and plot twist, the director also cruelly throws out the true state of most ordinary people. Just like the protagonist of the film, Kayla, with pimples all over her face and out of shape, she looked out of place when attending a pool party. She could only stay on the side and play underwater and hold her breath, and continue to hide in the water.
Confidence collapsed for a while.
I originally thought that I would encounter friendship, but in the end, I just lowered my head to play with my mobile phone and rolled my eyes.
When encountering love, it is a bloody painful lesson. The male god I fell in love with, came with a cool BMG, and the close-up eyes captured the soul. But as soon as he spoke, it was surprising. He asked Kayla directly if he was willing to do blow job for him.
The dream of love was suddenly shattered, and the heart was full of despair. Half of the family love is missing. Although the single father works very hard, the two still have communication barriers. He is worried that Kayla's father completely angered his daughter with a "stalking". The family relationship is crumbling, and the estrangement between father and daughter deepens.
"Eighth Grade" not only uses an ordinary girl who even seems to have a communication barrier as the heroine, but also has few so-called highlight moments in the story arrangement, and the protagonist's halo is even more stingy. The narrative is always falling, and just as it is about to bottom out, it will be suffocated. The audience expects that Kayla will be able to reverse her life after recording a self-motivated video, but the actual result is always short-lived, seeing the love, friendship, and pro-plot fail.
Will Kayla's upcoming high school life take her out of her comfort zone and offer others the chance to get to know her again? The film's climax is still a sadistic encounter. Many parents said that they had lingering fears after watching the scene in which Kayla was almost seduced and violated by senior boys, lamenting that the current students think that the development of design media has become immeasurable, and they are always driven by desire, resulting in abnormal behavior. These immature boys and girls often make "life and death" choices that affect their lives by thinking of heaven and hell.
After a long time and darkness, there will eventually be a dazzling dawn. Even if the light is weak, it can still bring hope full of warmth. Another self-healing selfie, proclaiming Kayla's refusal to give up and continue to resist. In all stages of life, especially the growing student years, there will always be such a difficult period of hardship. If we give up on ourselves, then in the future of the big society, we will only pay a more painful price. We must develop the ability to withstand blows in our student days in advance, rebound from bad influences, and put on armor for ourselves, even if we need to be like Kayla, relying on schizophrenic selfie videos to regain confidence and walk into reality. at all costs.
"Eighth Grade" is not a simple younger version of "Miss Bird". Many details of "Eighth Grade" are more lifelike, routine and grounded than "Miss Bird". That kind of long-term depression and mourning is the "remembered" and "bloody portrait" of life. The so-called highlight moment is always fleeting, in a moment.
Just like a few paragraphs at the end of the film, Keira's "clear love and hate" of friendship; the restart of love; the understanding and care of family love, survived the darkness, always waiting for the light, and after the storm, there will be a rainbow.
As long as the winds and rains are so long, there are so many magnificent clear skies. What "Eighth Grade" tells us is that no matter how hard it is now or how difficult the road ahead is, don't lose the courage and confidence to go forward.
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