Eighth Grade

In September 2019, I watched the movie Eighth Grade for the first time at Human Trust Cinema Yurakucho. The other day, I did it again on DVD. The coming-of-age drama film was released in 2018. Elsie Fisher starred for the first time in the movie. It is also Bo Burnham's debut work as a film director.

It follows a middle school girl named Kayla in the United States.

Kayla is shy and a poor talker. She is shocked when she is voted "Most Quiet" by her classmates in the middle school. She is an uncool girl who can be anywhere. She wants to be friends with her cool classmates and tries to talk to them hard, all the same, they dismiss her. She lives with her single father, Mark. He likes to chat with her during meals, however, she is quite into her smart phone and will not let go of it. When he tries to talk to her, she will not stop looking at her phone and tells him not to annoy her. The story describes Kayla's usual days in a detached manner until her graduation from the school. The funniest scene for me was when she is trying to eat a banana that she actually hates. The most heartbreaking scene was when she looks embarrassed wearing a swimsuit because of her plump figure and appears in a pool party filled with her slender classmates. Although various things happens, yet she grows gradually and steadily without losing herself under the benevolent watch of her gentle father. How Kayla glows is admirable and really lovable.

The main character is not popular in the school, so the movie is very realistic as well as Booksmart. I want such realistic movies to increase because in fact, ordinary students are the majority in schools. Basically, I like good coming-of-age dramas in which popular students are the main characters, though I have kind of lost my interest in a romance between a beautiful girl and a handsome boy because it has looked ordinary.

Honestly, I was puzzled a little by the very realistic protagonist when I watched the movie for the first time. After that, however, I watched good ones like Booksmart, Lady Bird and Frances Ha, whose heroines are all true-to-life, and I got used to realistic descriptions of women, so I felt Kayla lovelier than the last time and shed a tear when I did it for the second time.

The film is fantastic and stars the former child actor Elsie Fisher whose performances far outshine the other actors.

エイス・グレード

2019年９月、ヒューマントラストシネマ有楽町にて『エイス・グレード 世界で一番クールな私へ』を初観覧。そして、先日、DVDにて再観賞。2018年公開の青春映画。エルシー・フィッシャーの初主演作で、ボー・バーナムの監督デビュー作でもある。

アメリカの中学２年生の女の子、ケイラの成長記。

ケイラは内気で口下手な女の子。学校で、「最も無口な女の子」に選ばれてしまってショックを受ける、どこにでもいそうなイケてない女の子。クラスのイケてる女の子たちと仲良くなりたくて彼女たちに一所懸命話しかけるが、全く相手にされない。家では父マークと二人暮らし。食事中でさえスマホを手放さないケイラ。そんな娘と話をしたいマーク。でも、スマホに夢中なケイラは話しかけてくるマークをウザがる。そんなケイラの日常が彼女の中学卒業まで淡々と描かれている。可笑しかったのは、彼女が苦手なバナナを食べようとする場面。いじらしかったのは、ポッチャリ体系の彼女が、痩せている友だちが大勢いるプールパーティに、水着姿で恥ずかしそうに現れる場面。様々な事が起きるが、ケイラは、優しい父に見守られながら、自分を見失う事無く少しずつ着実に成長する。そんな彼女の健気な姿がとても愛らしい。

『ブックスマート』同様、主人公がクラスの人気者ではないので、とてもリアルなドラマに仕上がっている。クラスの人気者が主役の青春ドラマも悪くはないが、学校なんて、目立たない地味な学生の方が多いのだから、今後も、こんな作品が増えてほしいと思う。美男美女の学生カップルの恋愛なんてありきたりだし。

初観賞時、正直、リアルすぎる主人公に戸惑った。だが、その後、等身大の女性が主人公の『ブックスマート』『レディ・バード』『フランシス・ハ』といった良作の観賞を通して女性のリアルな描写に慣れたせいか、本作の再観賞時は、前回よりケイラをより愛おしく感じて、涙が零れた。

元子役のエルシー・フィッシャーの堅実な演技が光る秀作。

Harry Potter Part I to IV

Tenet is the first movie in which I saw Robert Pattinson. I was really impressed with how sophisticated he was in it and I tweeted about it some days later. Then one of my followers replied to me that he appears in a Harry Potter movie. Speaking of Harry Potter, Emma Watson does, too. Beauty and the Beast is the first movie in which I saw her. Before I watched it, I had heard from a girl co-worker of mine that Watson was one of the most beautiful women in the world, however, I thought of her as just beautiful when I watched her in it, so I told the co-worker so some days later. She then got irritated and told me not to say so without watching Happy Potter. I recalled it and I felt that time had come to watch the popular series, which I had somehow refrained from doing it, so I started to do it in order.

I at first watched Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets and Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban on DVD. Although I had heard that Hermione played by Emma Watson was an honor student, yet she was so scary that it made me laugh. I also thought that the little Watson was not so cute, unlike the little Dakota and Elle Fanning. Moreover, I associated the owls as messengers and the moving stairs at the Hogwarts School with the crows and something in Damon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, so I felt that Harry Potter and Damon Slayer have much in common.

Then I finally watched Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire in which Robert Pattinson appears. He seemed to be a novice actor and had less dignity than Daniel Radcliffe who is younger but had already been starred in three movies, though Pattinson became one of the world's highest-paid actors when he starred in The Twilight Saga film series. Radcliffe became quite famous in his early teens. Pattinson has been a big star now. The comparison of the two actors is really interesting. As for Emma Watson, she was no longer immature. She was pretty especially wearing a dress in the dance party, so I understood the emotional attachment of Watson's longtime fans, who had watched her since her debut, and I started to see Watson in a new light.

The Harry Potter films are based on the novels of J. K. Rowling, an English author. Those ones follow the main character, Harry Potter, and his best friends, Ron and Hermione, and they describe how the young trio grow as sorcerers through confronting the villains. I feel uncomfortable with male sorcerers, so I did not love the four films so much. All the same, the blockbusters were worth watching and entertained me as fantasies. 

ハリー・ポッター 第１作～第４作

ロバート・パティンソンを初めて観た映画は『TENET テネット』。その洗練された雰囲気に魅了され、観覧後にその事をツイートしたところ、彼が『ハリー・ポッター』に出演していた事を私のフォロワーさんが教えてくれた。『ハリー・ポッター』と言えば、エマ・ワトソンも出演している。彼女を初めて観たのは『美女と野獣』。事前に、ワトソン好きの職場の若い同僚から彼女は世界的な美女だと聞いていたのだが、その観賞時は、そこまでの美人だとは感じられず、観賞後、その同僚にその事を正直に話したところ、気分を害した様子で「『ハリー・ポッター』も観てないくせに」と冷たく言い放たれた。そんな事を思い出して、それまで何となく敬遠していた、その人気シリーズを観る時が来たと感じ、一作目から順に観始めた。

まず、『ハリー・ポッターと賢者の石』、『秘密の部屋』、『アズカバンの囚人』をDVDにて観賞。優等生だと聞いていた、エマ・ワトソン演じるハーマイオニーのおっかなさが可笑しかった。ただ、幼いワトソンは、ファニング姉妹の幼い頃と比べると、それほど可愛いとは感じなかった。また、伝達手段であるフクロウや、ホグワーツ校の動く階段を観ながら、『鬼滅の刃』のカラス等を連想して、２作品は共通点が多いなと感じたりした。

そして、ロバート・パティンソンが出ている、シリーズ４作目の『炎のゴブレット』を観賞。出演していたパティンソンはまだ駆け出しの俳優という感じで、既に３作品で主演を張っていた年下のダニエル・ラドクリフに貫録負けしていた。だが、その後、彼は『トワイライト』シリーズにて破格の出演料を手にする俳優になっている。若くしてスターになったラドクリフと現在大人気のパティンソン。二人の対比が興味深かった。エマ・ワトソンはと言えば、幼さが無くなり、綺麗になっていた。特に劇中のパーティにおけるドレス姿は美しかった。デビューから彼女の成長を見守っている彼女のファンの、彼女への思い入れも理解出来たし、私の彼女を見る目も変わってきた。

『ハリー・ポッター』シリーズは、英国人作家、J・K・ローリングの同名小説が原作。主人公の少年ハリー・ポッターと彼の親友のロンとハーマイオニーの３人組が、悪と対峙しながら魔法使いとして成長する物語。男の魔法使いに違和感を覚える為、すごく好きな作品ではないが、ファンタジー映画としてはとても観応えがある娯楽大作だ。