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Passes the Bechdel test

Eighth Grade

2018. Directed by Bo Burnham, written by Bo Burnham.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    11 women characters. 9 of them speak.
  2. Yes 2. Who talk to each other
    In 9 scenes out of 80.
  3. Yes 3. About something besides a man
    In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.

Poster for Eighth Grade

The film

In his feature film directorial debut, comedian Bo Burnham deftly encapsulates the awkwardness, angst, self-loathing and reinvention that a teenage girl goes through on the cusp of high school. Given that the 27-year-old stand-up comic achieved fame as a teenager himself through YouTube by riffing on his insecurities, he is uniquely capable as the film's writer and director to tell the story of Kayla, an anxious girl navigating the final days of her eighth grade year, despite creating a protagonist female instead of male. Like Burnham did more than a decade ago, 13-year-old Kayla turns to YouTube to express herself, where she makes advice blogs in which she pretends to have it all together. In reality, Kayla is sullen and silent around her single father and her peers at school, carrying out most of her interactions with her classmates on Instagram and Twitter. Her YouTube videos are a clever narrative tool that provide insight into her inner hopes and dreams, much like an inspirational online diary. One of Eighth Grade's biggest triumphs is in its realism.

Released
03 Aug 2018
Genres
Comedy, Drama
Rated
R
IMDb
7.3 / 10
Metascore
85 / 100
Awards
60 wins & 91 nominations total
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Kayla 341 lines, woman
  2. Dad 108 lines, man
  3. Gabe 80 lines, man
  4. Olivia 55 lines, woman
  5. Riley 47 lines, man
  6. Aiden 24 lines, man
  7. Kennedy 22 lines, woman
  8. Dianne 20 lines, woman
  9. Mr. Mcdaniel 17 lines, man
  10. Trevor 16 lines, man
Full cast, 46 people
  • Elsie Fisher as Kayla Day
  • Josh Hamilton as Mark Day
  • Emily Robinson as Olivia
  • Jake Ryan as Gabe
  • Daniel Zolghadri as Riley
  • Fred Hechinger as Trevor
  • Imani Lewis as Aniyah
  • Luke Prael as Aiden
  • Catherine Oliviere as Kennedy
  • Nora Mullins as Steph
  • Gerald Jones as Tyler
  • Missy Yager as Mrs. Graves
  • Shacha Temirov as Mason
  • Greg Crowe as Mr. McDaniel
  • Thomas J O'Reilly as Edmund
  • Frank Deal as Officer Todd
  • J. Tucker Smith as Mr. Graves
  • Tiffany Grossfeld as Babs
  • Trinity Goscinsky-Lynch as Dylan
  • Natalie Carter as Mrs. Roach
  • Kevin R. Free as Mr. Denkert
  • Keith Maurice Davis as High School Boy
  • Deborah Unger as Mrs. Nolan
  • William Alexander Wunsch as Brave Boy
  • Marguerite Stimpson as Puberty Video Instructor
  • Tristan Wheeler as Andrew Fields
  • Kylie Seaman as Kristen S.
  • Dylan Vonderhorst as Dawn Ringlehein
  • Luke Mulligan as Jed Goodwin
  • Louisa Rose Guarasci as Jackie S.
  • Brenna Parker as Missy Bytel
  • William Koo as Garrett
  • Andrew Geher as Crazy Dancing Boy
  • Faith Kelly as Student
  • Jalesia Martinez as High School Student
  • Blair Seaman as High School Student
  • Phoebe Amirault as Middle School Student
  • Veronica Bikowicz as Middle School Student
  • Castor Feinberg as Middle School Student
  • Molly Forman as Middle school student
  • Vivek Nickolas Mathews as Middle School Student
  • Olivia Galligan as Middle School Student
  • Kendall Seaman as Middle School Student
  • Nina Victoria Mathews as Middle School Student
  • Kaileen Quinones as Middle School Student
  • V. Rocco Russell as Middle School Student

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 3% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 80

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers
ScenesWomen's linesMen's lines
1 to 230
3 to 400
5 to 600
7 to 840
9 to 1020
11 to 1220
13 to 1440
15 to 1686
17 to 1849
19 to 20210
21 to 223034
23 to 24183
25 to 263715
27 to 28216
29 to 3020
31 to 32160
33 to 342324
35 to 36914
37 to 381418
39 to 4080
41 to 42182
43 to 4420
45 to 4650
47 to 483512
49 to 5077
51 to 5280
53 to 544331
55 to 56110
57 to 586144
59 to 6010
61 to 6233
63 to 6420
65 to 6640
67 to 6833
69 to 701015
71 to 724556
73 to 7475
75 to 7630
77 to 7820
79 to 8050

The evidence

  • Straight from the script
  • Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
KENNEDY: ...what is it?. KAYLA: It’s a game, it’s really fun. You, you um, you take turns - like everyone gets ten cards and then you take turns doing - you’ll see. It’s li… KENNEDY: ...Cool.
KAYLA: Kennedy, hey. KENNEDY: Hey...? KAYLA: Hi, thanks for letting me come to your pool party. KENNEDY: No problem.
KAYLA: Hey. OLIVIA: I’m Olivia. KAYLA: Hey. OLIVIA: Ohmygod you’re so cute.
OLIVIA: So, you excited to be a freshman? KAYLA: Totally, yeah.
OLIVIA: Oh my god. KAYLA: What was that? OLIVIA: Stupid inside joke. KAYLA: Oh cool.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 62 are women's.

501 lines from women, 307 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

11 women and 10 men in the cast. 9 women and 9 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

A woman speaks the first line. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 7 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

  • First line by a woman
  • Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 58% of the words (4,828), men 42% (3,440). Women have 62% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.

Conversations between two named characters

Exhibit F: behind the camera

4 of the 13 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 30% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by
Bo Burnham (man)
Written by
Bo Burnham (man)
Produced by
Scott Rudin (man), Lila Yacoub (woman), Christopher Storer (man), Eli Bush (man)
Shot by
Andrew Wehde (man)
Edited by
Jennifer Lilly (woman)
Music by
Anna Meredith (gender not listed)
Production design by
Sam Lisenco (man)
Costumes by
Mitchell Travers (gender not listed)
Cast by
Allison Jones (woman), Meredith Tucker (woman)

The crew, department by department

  • Production

    6 women, 5 men, 10 not listed

  • Sound

    2 women, 11 men, 7 not listed

  • Camera

    2 women, 4 men, 6 not listed

  • Costume & Make-Up

    1 women, 0 men, 8 not listed

  • Art

    0 women, 3 men, 4 not listed

  • Editing

    1 women, 3 men, 3 not listed

  • Directing

    0 women, 3 men, 2 not listed

  • Other crew

    1 women, 1 men, 1 not listed

  • Women
  • Men
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit G: how old the stars were

Women: 17 on average. Men: 23 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Elsie Fisher 14, Imani Lewis 18, Emily Robinson 19

Men

Jake Ryan 14, Luke Prael 15, Daniel Zolghadri 18, Fred Hechinger 18, Josh Hamilton 48

Exhibit H: the money

It made 6.8 times what it cost.

Budget
$2 million
Box office
$13.5 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 80 scenes and 831 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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