‘Mansplaining’ teen angst flick makes the grade
Eighth Grade 15 ★★★★★
Kayla Day is an awkward 13-year-old struggling to grow up in today’s materialistic and social media-obsessed America. She’s painfully shy, prone to spots and the boys she’s just beginning to notice conspicuously fail to notice her. But gamely, endearingly and somewhat heartbreakingly too, she never gives up, perkily recording a regular video blog embracing such subjects as ‘being yourself’, ‘putting yourself out there’ and ‘having more confidence’. Almost nobody watches them.
But like it or not, a big change is on its way as Kayla nears the end of middle school and prepares to embrace high school. Uh-oh, hasn’t she seen Mean Girls?
At times, this is painful to watch – particularly during a scene where an older boy tries to pressure her into sex – but Elsie Fisher (pictured) is a naturalistic joy in the central role and there’s an underlying and eventually rather touching optimism to what unfolds. But what do I know, I’m a bloke – and so is 28-year-old YouTube polymath Bo Burnham (he’s a comedian, musician, actor and now film-maker), who writes, directs and uses music quite brilliantly. And now he’s ‘mansplained’ the insecurities of female puberty too. Brave chap.
Bel Canto 15 ★★★★★
Stockholm Syndrome describes the strange bond that can form between captors and captives, normally during a siege or hostage situation. And it’s at the heart of this cinematic oddity from Paul Weitz (yes, he of American Pie and About A Boy fame) about a world-famous American opera singer (Julianne Moore) who is taken hostage when armed guerrillas raid a South American government building.
At first, the hostages naturally fear for their lives but, as the days pass, language lessons begin, football matches kick off and love affairs blossom, both between hostage and hostage, and even between hostage and captor. Well acted but lacking substance.
Pond Life 15 ★★★★★
Set in South Yorkshire in the early Nineties, this is a meandering, sort-of-comingof-age film about poverty, puberty and, er, carp fishing. It’s Trevor (Tom Varey) who does most of the fishing, while the eccentric, not-allquite-there teenager Pogo (Esme Creed Miles) helps mix the bait. It’s touching – in parts – but a tad self-conscious and uneven.