Debut writer and director Bo Burnham (can you say, “Oscar nomination?”) delivers a poignant Sundance gem that’s this year’s Florida Project.
The film opens on a tight shot of Kayla (Elsie Fisher) recording herself in the safety of her bedroom on “today’s topic” for her YouTube channel. It has a minimal following. She needs more views, more ‘hits,’ more fans. Long gone are the days of meeting a friend over a Snickers bar at the local library. Kayla tells us that people suck, and evil people exist. She promises she’s “not shy.” She’s “talkative.” She’s “like, um, cool and confident. Okay, so like, just be yourself.”
Forming a circle with her fingers, Kayla’s sign-off is her signature shout-out “Gucci” as if a Kardashian were stepping in to share in her reality-show-moment. Then, Kayla closes her laptop, hoping other peers will like her. You see…there’s something far worse than being bullied…it’s being ignored.
This breakout performance of Elise Fisher shadows millennial angst makes the classic how-to-book Stressed Out Girls, seem like a Little Golden book.
Sure, there’s the cliché puberty, retainers, braces and zit factor but now an 8th grader’s all-important world is seen from behind the lens of a 2 x 5 inch iPhone screen, capturing it all, except for the truth at the heart of what an insecure and lonely child is feeling.
There’s a lot of irony in this carefully crafted story. There’s Aiden (Luke Prael) the too-cool-for-school bad boy introduced on ourscreen by heart-thumping music whenever he appears. He’s just won ‘best eyes’ at school yet he – irony #1 – can’t even see Kayla. Then there’s Kennedy (Catherine Oliviere) the slut-esque-little-poser with the rich parents who just won ‘best eyes’ too, but there’s irony that she can’t seehow horrible she really behaves. Irony #3: Kayla plays the cymbals – the noisiest instrument – in the school band yet she’s timid and shy. Irony #4 is that once in the confines of her room, Kayla’s back to coaxing on her no-subscriber viewers how to find and exhibit confidence. Yeah, right.
Years ago, an addicted ‘selfie’ taker was a narcissist. Ironically (#5) there’s little narcissism going on here. These kids simply want to fit in with society. Irony #6 – fitting in means appearing happy and exposing ‘happy’ to social media which becomes the fake life they live as opposed to the real life they’re feeling.
Kalya’s dad (Josh Hamilton) is someone other parents relate to whom – at one time – struggled with the distance of our own pubescent kids. He’s kind, cautious, and gives Kayla a long leash, but she dismisses him with curt comments or the plug-in of earbuds. (Give her ten years, she’ll adore him.) But on the other hand, why does Dad live in a similar bubble? Kayla’s M.I.A. Mother isn’t addressed until the end of the film so why isn’t he dating? Going out? Taking up hobbies? Irony #7.
The genius of the film is it’s done without preaching or patronizing. Burnham manages the message of kids being ‘liked,’ and forced to perform all the time where life is a complicated stage and they’re a limitless player. There is no downtime except when a kid sleeps. #Sad. #Very Sad.
The final irony: these kids are socially inept. Say “Hi, how are you?” to their face, and their stare is blank, lifeless; as if only robotically programed to live inside their submarine iPhone.
But it’s a sad world, too, as displayed in a ‘terrorist’ shooting drill which has replaced the school fire drill.
The movie has one exceptional Oscar-worthy scene of an older high school boy (Daniel Zolghadri) who tempts Kayla into a game of truth or date in the back of his car. He turns his sexual agenda on her, knowing she’s insecure and will feel badly…which she does. She even apologizes to him. In a time of #MeToo it was a watershed moment to hear young girls in the theatre audience telling him off…yelling at the screen.
And finally, stepping out of my Screen Queen critic persona, I was the mom who wrote many articles for Cosmo Girl, and Seventeen, and the mother of two (now grown) daughters. Here’s the sad bit: You don’t need to worry what your daughters are doing in high school, because truth is, whatever they’re experimenting will have happened by the end of Eighth grade. Add in the extra monetizing of social media, and their world is now a worldwide mega phone.