Liars and Saints

A few notes about the trailer for "Eighth Grade." -The "plot" of this preview is slightly deceptive. It presents one of Kayla's YouTube clips as a kind of triumphant reflection on experience--something hard-earned. But that's not what the YouTube clips are. They are delusional statements; they are Kayla play-acting. She hasn't earned the authority she attempts to convey in those clips, which is why they seem (endearingly) hollow and vague. Even though they are failures, we're also meant to love them, because they're the sign of a character fighting to "break the mold," to do something unusual (and even artistic). They are also maybe a self-portrait by Bo Burnham; Burnham himself made YouTube clips when he was in school, and he was even told by one dick-ish Catholic-school official that he ought to stop. ("Stop pursuing my dream? Will do!") -One of many things I love about "Eighth Grade" is that it identifies an u...

Eighth grade: My public middle school had a pool, and that pool doubled as a nuclear fall-out shelter. Maybe that sign was just a relic from a more troubled era? In any case, the sign remained. On days when you had mandatory swim class, you had to strip down in front of your peers, which was its own special trauma. Then you would shiver in a long line, and eventually, your turn would come, and you would race against classmates. Lengths, lengths of the pool. When you were inevitably last, by a wide a margin, your failure would be on display; it would be something visible to all. “My brother met this girl,” said my classmate, K, as we waited for our relay turn, “and she said she gives blow jobs.” She gives blow jobs-- like cool drinks at a lemonade stand! K’s brother had arranged to meet the girl after school-- this week! --to obtain his blow job. I didn’t really know what a blow job was, but the story seemed unbearably exciting, and then of course there wasn’t anything like follow-u...