Hilarious and heartfelt 'Eighth Grade' gets growing up just right

Eighth Grade is a special movie. On the surface, it doesn't appear to have much in the way of dramatic stakes -- it's about a normal, socially awkward young girl trying to break out of her self-imposed shell as she approaches the end of eighth grade and start of high school.

It's all pretty relatable, but what makes this movie so profoundly good is that it gets how at around 13 every little interaction feels momentous and life-changing.

It's funny, when I told my trainer I was seeing this film she asked me what I was like in the eighth grade, and for a bit I really struggled to remember. It's a hard period to place.

I remember feeling like whole weeks of drama could pass in a day, and even though what I was so worked up about grows hazier in my memory with each passing year (my most vivid memory involves pining after women that didn't like me back), I remember how fragile I was emotionally then, and writer-director Bo Burnham taps into that headspace flawlessly.

For the film's hero Kayla (played brilliantly by Elsie Fisher) just walking into a room of popular kids has the tension of a thousand horror films, or those awkward, first tentative steps towards sexuality can be devastating. One of the most moving, effective scenes in the film, involves a simple telephone call to a older mentor who's about to finish high school.

And lest you fear this film will too light and frothy, it contains a couple deeply real and powerfully disturbing moments that are achingly on point and unforgettable.

This film may not have the sprawling ambition of Boyhood, but it has a similar sort of universal beating heart.

Not only is it funny in a totally believable way (Kayla's exasperation with her doting dad is both heartbreaking and hilarious) but it feels so relevant and necessary -- this is a movie everyone should see, and will likely enjoy, not because it panders but because it stands out as humane filmmaking in an increasingly tech driven cinematic universe.

I will admit I was a sobbing wreck throughout, and not because it's an emotionally manipulative movie, it just brought a lot of memories flooding back of how both painful and pleasurable it can be not just to be a kid but to be a young adult right on the precipice of discovering who you are.

It's definitely one of my favorite movies I've seen this year -- and it really puts Burnham, who is only 27 (!) on the map as an exciting new voice in movies. I am not surprised he's so young, it helps that he's not too far removed from the age of the kids in this movie -- and he gets their halting rhythms of speaking (and copious use of the word like).

He also seamlessly weaves in the social media age which serves only to exacerbate pre-existing anxieties kids have these days. I kept thinking: I am so glad this shit didn't exist when I was a kid.

And yet, I didn't find this movie depressing (even with its sad beats), I found it to be a total joy and a real breath of fresh air.