Eighth Grade (Bo Burnham, July 13, 2018) Movie • Page 8

Awesome

 

I rarely watch REACT videos anymore, but they recently posted one where Bo and Elsie reacts to kids and it was pretty fun.

Still haven't watched this. Hoping local theaters post showing dates soon, but I'm not too hopeful. Huge bummer. Probably one of my most anticipated this year.

 

I loved everything about this. Kayla is an absolutely incredible character and I identified with her so deeply. Also we’re definitely in a golden age of adorable movie dads making me cry my eyes out.

 

This was fantastic! I'm not the biggest fan of musical comedy, but I've always respected Bo and his work even though it's not quite my cup of tea. His intelligence shines through in the writing and direction here. It really brought me back to those awkward middle school days in a way I haven't felt from a film before. And there were so many little details that captured the middle school experience, like the "LeBron Jaaammesss" running gag. That's something my dumbass would have done at that age and thought I was hilarious. So good.

No idea why this is rated R though. Is it an automatic R when you put kids that young in adult situations (the kid masturbating at the beginning, the blowjob convo, and the car scene)? I didn't even know it got that rating until I read it in this thread.

 

Basically yes. The MPAA has also gotten way more strict about f-bombs in the past few years for no real reason.

 

I don't know if it was used in the movie but one utterance of fuck in terms of sex is automatic R-rating. Rushmore is another example of a movie you wouldn't think is rated R but they use fuck in that context in one scene.

 

I don't know how you can be a parent and be that negligent or forgetful about the use curse words from late elementary school on, but I guess that's what the MPAA thinks is detrimental to developing minds

 

There's a doc that came out around 10 years ago called This Film Is Not Yet Rated, all about the MPAA and hypocritical ratings process. I don't know if they've changed but when seeking out individuals to watch and rate movies before release, they always pick someone who is a parent. So any sex or swear words are treated more critically compared to an action movie where hundreds of people are gunned down but if there's minimal bloodshed, it gets a PG13 rating.

 

Which makes sense, but it still baffles me that, as a parent, you have some revisionist history on what actually transpired when you were younger.

I might watch it. Does it go into the psychological aspect of why parents are more critical towards those items?

 

I absolutely love that doc. The sexual context being an "automatic" rule is kind of a myth but it certainly seems to be the general way of thinking and judging. There are definitely some that have slipped through the cracks and still had PG-13, but others like The King's Speech which only had it in the context of speech therapy still got hit with an R. It's ridiculous. Indie Sex is another documentary that talks about the insane rules from the Hays Code up until now.

 

MPAA is modern day Hays Code, tbh. Total hypocrites and crooks.

re: violence v nudity/sex, I worked in a video rental store for 6 years and still to this day the most baffling thing I experienced was how so many parents thought The Hunger Games was a great family series because there was no nudity, sex, or romance. I had a mom yell at me for suggesting Moonrise Kingdom for her 14/15 year olds and tell me that I should have picked something appropriate. Also had a dad try to get me to side with him that Saving Private Ryan was totally okay for his ten year old son to watch (who was clearly uncomfortable and not interested in the movie). I ended up pulling up the IMDB Parents Guide and being like, dude the parents on this site agree it's violent and traumatizing sooooo...

 

The MPAA is completely worthless. When I show movies to my classes, I always use Common Sense Media to figure out if they're appropriate.

Btw, here's the MPAA's actual documented R-rating rule:
"A motion picture’s single use of one of the harsher sexually-derived words, though only as an expletive, initially requires a PG-13 raging. More than one such expletive requires an R rating, as must even one of those words used in sexual context. The Rating Board nevertheless may rate such a motion picture PG-13 if, based on a special vote by a two-thirds majority, the Raters feel that most American parents would believe that a PG-13 rating is appropriate because of the context or manner in which the words are used or because the use of the words in the motion picture is inconspicuous."

Of course, this is ignored all the time (or I guess, subject to that 2/3 vote). See most recently: Dunkirk, Bridge of Spies, Concussion, Brooklyn, The Martian, etc.

 

Something I've never understood is how is a 13 year old able to handle one use of "Fuck" but suddenly becomes corrupted if it's used twice.

 

The death of the X and current treatment of NC-17 has the same function as the code for sure. Self-censorship in the name of a wider audience means very few challenging films get produced. I keep hoping that a big film will come out and make it profitable and acceptable again, but so far none of the contenders have made it happen.

My favorite decade for film is still the 70s because they didn't have any idea how to abuse the ratings system yet and so much got made that would never be allowed now. It always hurts to go back and see a portrayal that was critically and commercially loved back then that would be deemed too inappropriate or scandalous now.

 

I enjoyed Manohla Dargis' rating note in her review in the New York Times: "Rated R for real human language."

 

Reading obscure rating descriptions is one of my favorite things in the world.

I also like Common Sense Media since they are usually pretty unbiased compared to lots of other "family" rating websites. I don't have kids but I sometimes check what they have to say along with Does The Dog Die? to know if something may be too much for me personally. They also have some pretty hilariously clinical descriptions of things so sometimes just reading random pages is fun.

 

The fact that this movie is rated R is absurd, there is nothing in this movie that the average 14 year old shouldn't see

 

Guess there were a few too many fuck-bombs in there

 

I agree!!! What other dads come to mind???

 

Michael Stuhlbarg in Call Me By Your Name!

 

I still haven’t seen that! I think the dad in Lady Bird is the first that comes to mind for me.

 

Yes! That one crushed me too. It’s peak Dad time.

 

I’ll probably buy this simply for the commentary track. That sounds great

 

Oh my goodness. I never buy movies on iTunes, but this is where I'm about to be.

 

100% will buy the Blu Ray when it comes out.