Movie Reviews: Eighth Grade, Leave No Trace and Skyscraper
Time to review some movies and boy do we have a good crop today. ‘Eighth Grade’, ‘Leave No Trace’ and ‘Skyscraper’ reviews are below and two out of the three are highly rated by us and our audience. Make sure to rate all 2018 movies in the links at the bottom of the post. Let’s get into the reviews…
Jeff (95/100): Bravo Bo Burnham, bravo. If you are sick of coming of age movies, well, maybe move on, but I would consider that to be a massive mistake. The one two punch from Burnham and lead actress Elsie Fisher helps make this one of the best movies so far in 2018. Tackling social anxiety, something Burnham has said he deals with himself, is no small task, but ‘Eighth Grade’ does it perfectly and turns this into a fairly important movie.
The first punch comes from Bo Burnham, who penned an incredibly subtle yet intricate script. Some coming of age movies try too hard and end up feeling exaggerated and too distant from reality. This is not the case at all with ‘Eighth Grade’, as Burnham put together one of the more relatable and lifelike coming of age movies ever released. Every detail, from the dynamic between a middle school-aged kid and their parents to how bizarre school administrators can be, is spot on. The movie will make you cringe, without a doubt, and, as someone with really bad second-hand embarrassment, I was struggling at points during the movie. But this is the point Burnham was trying to make. Eighth grade is an awkward, cringe-worthy and anxious time in any kid’s life, so the realism is off the charts. There must be something in the water in Hollywood recently because this is yet another great writer-director debut.
Just as vital as a having a great script for a movie with this type of a message and narrative is having an actress who can portray the character effectively. Elsie Fisher (‘Despicable Me’, ‘McFarland USA’) bursts onto the scene with her performance in ‘Eighth Grade’. Burnham wrote an impressive script, but to actually bring such dynamite realism of a socially awkward and struggling eighth grader to the screen like Fisher does is worthy of award season buzz. All of the acting in the movie is fantastic, but two more performances I want to point out are those of Josh Hamilton and Jake Ryan. In the role of the father, Hamilton (not the MLB player) just nails being the perfect awkward lame dad that every middle schooler encounters. Jake Ryan is also great as the kind and nerdy kid in the movie, Gabe. Every line from him is laugh out loud funny and might have been the best comedic mark Burnham left on the movie in terms of the script.
As I said before, this is an important movie, as it takes on social anxiety with brilliance. Bo Burnham deserves a ton of praise and I hope the hype carries him all the way through award season. In an industry that tends to recognize great directors for cookie cutter, Oscar bait movies, I would be disappointed if Burnham got put on the back burner. While this has all of the pillars of a coming of age movie, the actual components go beyond what we see in almost every movie from the genre.
NOTE: I am curious if ‘Eighth Grade’ falls victim to the same issue ‘Lady Bird’ had with Rotten Tomatoes. People see the 98% on the wildly misunderstood Rotten Tomatoes system, rather than 8.8/10 score, and will expect one of the best movies of all-time. This will turn into being “letdown” or calling the movie “overrated.” All of those comments are fine, but I think people give themselves unfair expectations based on Rotten Tomatoes’ misleading percentage system. ‘Lady Bird’ having 100% for a while last year resulted in the same effect.
KenJac (91/100): This is a brutal, brutal movie in the best possible way. It sends you through the full range of emotions to the extreme, with cringy, loving, depressing, heartwarming and angsty scenes leaving you confused about how to feel. It’s a stunning directorial debut for Bo Burnham, and his influence is very plain as a fan of his. If you’re a fan of coming-of-age dramas, you will love ‘Eighth Grade’.
Elsie Fisher is the star here, perfectly capturing the essence of middle school awkwardness. Her performance made the character of Kayla, who is having trouble finding herself and struggling with the disappointment of not meeting the goals she had set for herself years prior. She makes you laugh, cry, and feel uncomfortable but also sympathetic and that’s due to her outstanding job and showing what life is like at that age. The other standout performance is from Josh Hamilton, who plays Kayla’s dad. No, it’s not the 5-5 with 4 home runs Josh Hamilton who single-handedly beat my archrival in fantasy baseball back in 2012. It’s the one from ‘Outsourced’ and ‘American Horror Story’. He’s just trying to do his best and delivers some pretty emotional scenes through his struggle trying to help his daughter be happy. The last actor I want to shout out is Jake Ryan who plays Gabe. This god damn kid had me cracking up every single line he delivered.
Something I was tentative about going into a teen coming of age movie was how they were going to portray teen life. A lot of the time when you have adults directing these, as if there is an alternative, you end up with a movie that might be well made but feels incredibly out of touch. That wasn’t the case here, and I give a tremendous amount of credit to Burnham for that. From a technical standpoint, I loved the way it was shot and edited. There are some great tracking shots and car scenes that helped add to the tension of the movie. The music and sound editing are absolutely phenomenal, and you wouldn’t expect anything less from Burnham. The differing tracks sync up perfectly to add to whatever emotion they were trying to evoke in their respective scenes.
It will be easy for the mind to try and compare this to last years ‘Lady Bird’, but I really don’t think they share much of anything other than the coming-of-age theme. This isn’t about Kayla’s relationship to anybody other than herself, and it explores the battle young people go through in the social media age. Like I mentioned at the start, this movie will put you through the ringer of emotions. Be prepared for that before you go see what is one of the best movies of the year so far.
Jeff (94/100): Another movie that deserves more hype and mainstream praise, ‘Leave No Trace’ is a powerful experience with some world-class performances. Debra Granik’s first feature film since ‘Winter’s Bone’ (which I need to say is insane) won’t disappoint and is going to stick around as one of the best movies of 2018.
‘Leave No Trace’ dives into the turmoil and struggles faced from a father and daughter duo who have lived off the grid before their lives are thrown a curveball. I fucking love Ben Foster in every one of his roles, especially ‘Hell or High Water’, one of my favorite movies from 2016. As one of the two leads in the film, Foster’s portrayal is gritty and emotional, which has become a staple of his performances. The intensity from every Ben Foster character is captivating and it fits like a glove with this script and story.
Remember the name Thomasin McKenzie, because the job she did in this movie is going to launch her career. It was a Granik movie (‘Winter’s Bone’) that helped bring Jennifer Lawrence to the forefront of Hollywood and I can see the same for McKenzie with ‘Leave No Trace’. Playing the role of Ben Foster’s character’s daughter, who clashes with her father in their idealistic and lifestyle struggles, McKenzie has a bit of her own coming of age movie within this film. Just an absolutely stunning performance from this up and coming young actress.
I hope Debra Granik doesn’t wait nearly a decade to do another feature film, because her movies, especially ‘Leave No Trace’, have such an unmistakable raw and emotional feel that I love getting to see on the big screen. It has a very pointed, simple and subtle story that allows everything to breath and have a powerful effect on its audience. This movie has massive reviews right now, a 94/100 from our audience and a 100% and 88% score from critics and audiences, respectively, on Rotten Tomatoes. I am not sure how widely this movie is released, but I would make a point to find it playing somewhere close to where you live.
KenJac (90/100): Debra Granik (‘Down to the Bone’, ‘Winter’s Bone’) really outdid herself with this father/daughter tale of reliance and isolation. When I first blogged the trailer for this movie, I mentioned how stories of isolationists being reintroduced to society always move the needle for me, and that I was curious if this might be more of a small screen experience. I’m happy to be wrong and would definitely recommend this to anyone.
Ben Foster is incredible, and he excels in his role as a veteran father whose PTSD leaves him unable to cope with society. Even more impressive is the performance by Thomasin McKenzie. This could not have been an easy shoot, even for a veteran actress. They’re hiking through the Pacific Northwest 80% of the movie and combining that physical challenge with the fact that a movie like this is hugely reliant on the acting must have been grueling. She rose up and met that challenge, doing an exceptional job showing her internal battle between her love for her father, and her realization that simply surviving isn’t the same as living.
It’s very well measured, never leaving you still for too long. Granik does a phenomenal job showing the desperation of their situation, and her use of sound was incredible. The acoustics of the forest and a very deft touch on the soundtrack really helped make a lot of dramatic scenes. I also have to highlight how good the dialogue was. There were a lot of memorable lines, with the heavy hitter for me coming in the closing scene. The ending was brutally emotional and alone makes it worth the watch. A good comparison to the film is ‘The Road’, and also the video game ‘The Last of Us’. I’d say it’s a must watch regardless, but if you like movies and games like those, it’s for sure worth going out of your way to catch it while it’s still in theaters.
P.S. If you can avoid it, try not to see it in a theater with Oceans 8 playing its soundtrack at 2000% volume right next door.
Jeff (64/100): I was starting to get worried that something was wrong in Hollywood because Dwayne Johnson hadn’t been in a new movie in well over two months. Rest easy though, folks, because The Rock is back in the summer blockbuster ‘Skyscraper’. The movie pays homage to ‘Die Hard’, ‘The Fugitive’, ‘Towering Inferno’ and is an enjoyable popcorn action movie. With that said, the movie doesn’t quite live up to others from the genre.
It’s definitively a different role for Johnson, something he has been trumpeting on twitter over the last week, as his character is knocked down and in more strenuous situations than his usual superhero-like characters. The movie doesn’t necessarily do anything wrong, it is more so that it is missing elements that helped make something like ‘Die Hard’ so iconic. Script and story-wise, I think ‘Skyscraper’ tries to take itself a bit too serious. You need a little humor or calming moments to cut into what is a very chaotic and crazy movie. Speaking of chaotic, the overuse of CGI was probably a mistake. While the skyscraper is futuristic and slick, once the fire gets going, I was hoping for more grit and edge to the set pieces. You don’t really get all of that with the way the CGI plays. Lastly, I have to mention the villain. This is not a great villain and he is certainly no Hans Gruber. Rolland Møller does an okay job as the antagonist, but there just isn’t enough meat to counter The Rock’s main character. Despite his adversity in the movie, you need to really have a strong human threat against whoever The Rock is playing because, obviously, you always expect him to win.
In an interview with Rawson Thurber (a stand-up, fantastic guy who I hope doesn’t hate me after this review), he told us that ‘Skyscraper’ is, “not Shakespeare… but it’s a down the middle American cheeseburger.” That is absolutely spot on. This is a movie I will surely watch again when I am scrolling through my channels and see it on TNT or TBS. It’s not a great cinematic achievement or a legendary action movie like ‘Die Hard’, but that wasn’t exactly the goal of the creators, obviously.
KenJac (76/100): I’m a little confused about the critic reaction to this movie because it is absolutely everything it promised to be. A perfect homage to 80’s and 90’s action movies, it is essentially an archetype summer blockbuster. Archetype is the operative word here, as it has an archetypically ridiculous plot, action/fight sequences, villains and dialogue for what it was going for. There is definitely a more substantial feel to it than say ‘Die Hard’, but you get what you pay for with some huge explosions, fires, and one big ass jump from a crane.
DJ has a refreshing role as Will Sawyer, a vulnerable wounded warrior. It’s a nice departure from his usual hyperbolic destroyer role, and he actually comes across as someone you feel empathy for and not just pure admiration. I didn’t know what to expect from Neve Campbell, but she turned out to be an insanely badass former Navy combat medic turned mother bear protecting her cubs against impossible odds. There are some twists and turns regarding the allegiances of the supporting cast, so just I’ll say that Roland Møller was a solid, Mads Mikkelsen-esque bad guy. I wish we got more Noah Taylor and Pablo Schreiber, both of whom I enjoy immensely. Also, there is a distinct possibility this is a prequel to ‘The Dark Knight’, considering Chin Han also played a Hong Kong billionaire living in a tower in that as well.
Maybe the weakest part of the movie lies in the villain’s motives and methodology, but without the latter, it wouldn’t be the same movie. I think it delivers mostly everywhere else, especially in the scenes involving heights. There are parts that, for Acrophobics, get your BPM soaring while you watch Sawyer go through some high-flying stunts. The fight choreography was also badass, especially the adapted fighting style for Sawyer. The CGI looked great, especially considering how much of the environment it made up.
In the end, ‘Skyscraper’ gives you everything you were promised with a little bit extra on top. Scary heights, gunfights, explosions, fire, and a randomly thoughtful and assailable role from DJ. Closing thought: give DJ a cooler name than Will Sawyer. Whitewashing a fence-ass name. Make it like Bolt Vanderhuge or Butch Deadlift like one of the ‘Mystery Science Theater 3,000’ space mutiny names.
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Both ‘Eighth Grade’ and ‘Leave No Trace’ are Officially Not Buttered with Trillballins seeing them soon and giving his toughts on the podcast. Meanwhile, ‘Skyscraper’ just misses the mark and is Officially Not Buttered. We have a new episode of Lights, Camera, Barstool out now where we go more in-depth on ‘Skyspcraper’, talk about must-see movies from 1980 and roast the viral Wendy’s nuggets tweet kid. We want to see what your movie ratings are for the year 2018 and new releases. Click the links at the bottom of this post to submit your rating for everything released so far this year.
July (Eighth Grade, Leave No Trace & Skyscraper): https://goo.gl/forms/czBxbSMjxAUC6CiI3
January: https://goo.gl/forms/nNzX19HbebeQMUAA3
February: https://goo.gl/forms/DWG9TJMISLzUunsu2
March: https://goo.gl/forms/k0dL5ozOrhwJ2Bk03
April: https://goo.gl/forms/Z218hqWq3XGyqi9C3
May: https://goo.gl/forms/f5aYcpJHnBMmkcs52
June: https://goo.gl/forms/1sfizEF3LCTcXFrh2