Kayla is, in many ways, a typical girl in her early teens. She is awkward, inarticulate (as we can see from her terrible YouTube videos), and moody. She puts up with her well-meaning dad whilst desperately wanting to be friends with the cool girls and be noticed by the handsome boys. Your enjoyment of this film probably will depend on your patience with Kayla as she struggles to “like” be “like cool”.
Thanks to a superb performance by Elsie Fisher, I found her relatable even as she infuriates. Ultimately she is good hearted and I wanted her to make better decisions. I liked the fact that although there have been so many school-based coming of age movies, this one avoided most of the usual tropes involving various groups of kids falling into set categories Also the ending, although hopeful, doesn’t show Kayla’ s life changed with her suddenly becoming the popular girl in school or the prom queen. There are still surely troubling times ahead for her. A refreshingly honest look at teenage life.
Rating: 8 out of 10