Bo Burnham’s “Eighth Grade” recharges the coming-of-age narrative, successfully tackling young adolescence in the age of social media (read: not a small feat).

“Eighth Grade” follows Kayla—portrayed by the incredible Elsie Fisher—in her last week of middle school, brilliantly allowing the viewer insight into an anxious adolescent mind. She navigates the middle school hellscape in the best way she knows how: by posting motivational vlogs on YouTube, using the popular language of self-care and self-acceptance and anxiously biding her time until graduation. And it’s so clear that our struggling young heroine is exactly what the film needs to afford Gen Z the complexity it needs to be properly understood.

Burnham takes what could be a really hateable stock character, a teenage girl who uses social media (can’t you already hear the baby boomers making fun of her being a dumb phone-addicted kid?) and makes her an overwhelmingly engaging dynamic character. Kayla is a nice girl who wins the “Most Quiet” superlative at school. She’s relatable. But above all, she is super awkward—so awkward, at times, that it gets hard to watch. It’s more cringe-tastic than the Scott’s Tots episode of “The Office.” And it’s uncomfortable as f— in the best way possible, because it’s just so real. Middle school is a cringeworthy time; hence, this is the fantastically cringey screen representation we needed to have.

Cringe comedy is the perfect platform to encourage viewer empathy for a generation that so many people find difficult to understand or flat-out refuse to understand. We all remember feeling how Kayla felt. For some of us, it’s the general discomfort that helped us connect. For others, the crippling anxiety felt all too real. The way in which everyone was able to connect was how the film encouraged audience members to think back on the oh-so-awkward moments they had as middle schoolers. That experience of empathy—which seems to be becoming a hallmark of most A24 films—is what really makes the movie work. That empathy opens the viewer up to accepting pieces of the experience that would otherwise be more difficult to process, like the adolescent social media experience.

The complex infusion of social media into the plot really makes “Eighth Grade” a triumph in filmmaking. Understanding how Gen Z interacts with social media is hard, and portraying it correctly on screen is even harder. Burnham captures the nuances of adolescent social media use that other films and shows lazily avoid and simplify with sophomoric, unrealistic “Mean Girls”-esque bullying tropes.

“Eighth Grade” is an essential viewing experience for all ages, and it’s especially great to promote discussions between age groups. Go watch “Eighth Grade” with someone who watched you go through middle school. Cry with them.