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Eighth Grade
Eighth Grade, released in 2018 and written and directed by comedian Bo Burnham in his feature directorial debut, follows a socially anxious eighth-grade girl navigating the final week of middle school while documenting her own life through anxious, largely unwatched self-help YouTube videos. The film's unusually direct engagement with smartphone and social media culture's specific effect on contemporary adolescent anxiety distinguished it from earlier coming-of-age films made before smartphones and constant social media use had become central to teenage social life. Elsie Fisher's performance as the film's protagonist, praised for its naturalistic, deeply awkward authenticity, captured a specific kind of contemporary teenage social anxiety that critics widely noted felt distinct from more stylized or heightened depictions of adolescent awkwardness in earlier films. Burnham, who built his own early career through internet video platforms before transitioning to comedy and filmmaking, brought a particularly informed perspective to the film's depiction of how social media shapes contemporary teenage self-image and social anxiety, and Eighth Grade received widespread critical acclaim for its authentic and empathetic portrayal.
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The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, released in 2012 and adapted and directed by Stephen Chbosky from his own bestselling novel, follows a socially anxious high school freshman navigating friendship, first love, and unresolved childhood trauma across his first year of high school in the early 1990s. The film's unflinching treatment of mental health struggles, including its protagonist's flashback-triggered panic attacks connected to earlier childhood sexual abuse, gave the coming-of-age genre a level of direct engagement with serious psychological trauma that many earlier teen films had avoided or only referenced obliquely. Its soundtrack, built around specific real songs from the story's early-1990s setting, including a pivotal scene built around the characters' search to identify a song playing during a tunnel drive, became closely associated with the film's broader emotional impact and cultural afterlife. Chbosky's decision to direct the film adaptation of his own novel gave The Perks of Being a Wallflower an unusually direct continuity between source material and screen adaptation, and the film's genuine, unsentimental treatment of adolescent mental health struggles has made it a frequently cited touchstone for subsequent coming-of-age stories addressing similar themes.
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