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。

Tenet

In September 2020, the movie Tenet was released. I watched the hit film twice in the same year at theaters.

The story follows the protagonist who is paired with a mysterious guy named Neil and struggles to save a woman and the world from the villain.

Although I do not like time travel stories, yet I thought that I should have watched the film because of the reputation and the intriguing preview. I beforehand watched the first and second installment of Back to the Future, which I had avoid watching for a long time because they have time travel stories, in preparation to do Tenet.

When I firstly did the hit film, I gave up understanding the difficult time inversion scenes and the time-series far more complicated than Back to the Future before the middle but I could at least enjoy watching it from the start to the end because of the wonderful pictures. That was the second movie starring John David Washington that I had ever watched following BlacKkKlansman. He was not more glamourous than his father, Denzel Washington, but he had presence, which impressed me. I was also stricken by how sophisticated Robert Pattinson appeared and how beautiful the blonde tall Elizabeth Debicki looked. I watched both of them for the first time. Then I felt that the three actors gave a wonderful performance.

When I secondly did it, I could not understand the intricate time-series so much, so I just enjoyed watching the fantastic screen images again. I was also impressed with the playing of the two veteran actors, Michael Caine appearing for a short time and Kenneth Branagh playing the villain, in addition to the above three actors. I was especially stricken by a superb performance that Robert Pattinson gave as Neil who has what he wants to say but has to hide it feeling painful and looking cool to the end.

Honestly, I do not badly want to understand the time inversion scenes. I would be able to naturally do them as I repeatedly watch them. Anyway, I want to enjoy how I do them. It seems that I will have a long-term relationship with the movie as well as Blade Runner.

The last scene looks like the one of Casablanca. The entertaining blockbuster is filled with various elements.

TENET テネット

2020年９月に公開された話題作『TENET テネット』を、同年に２回劇場観覧した。

主人公の男が謎の男ニールと組んで、悪党から世界とある女性を救うために奮闘する物語。

タイムトラベル物は好きではないのだが、面白そうな予告編や評判から、本作は観ておくべきだと思い、まず、長年敬遠していた同じタイムトラベル物である『バック・トゥ・ザ・フューチャー』のパート１と２を予習も兼ねて観覧前にDVDにて観賞した。

１回目の観覧では、『BTTF』よりもはるかに複雑な時系列や「時間の逆行」の難解さに、早々に理解するのを放棄し、ひたすらその素晴らしい映像を楽しんだ。主演のジョン・デヴィッド・ワシントンを観るのは『ブラック・クランズマン』に続いて２回目。父親のデンゼル・ワシントンほどの華は無いが、その存在感に魅せられた。目を見張ったのは、初めて観るロバート・パティンソンの洗練された雰囲気と、同じく初めて観る金髪で長身のエリザベス・デビッキの美しさ。３人とも、演技も素晴らしかった。

２回目の観覧でも、その時系列を理解することは出来ず、その素晴らしい映像をただただ堪能した。そして、ベテラン俳優の２人、出番少な目のマイケル・ケインと悪役のケネス・ブラナーと、前述の３人の役者の演技を楽しんだ。特に、今回も、言いたいことを言えないもどかしさをおくびにも出さず、最後までクールに演じきったロバート・パティンソンの演技に魅せられた。

「時間の逆行」のシーンは、正直、積極的に理解する気はない。何度か観れば自然と理解出来るだろう。その過程を楽しもうと思う。『ブレード・ランナー』同様、長い付き合いになりそうな作品だ。

ラストが『カサブランカ』みたいだった。色んな要素が詰まった超娯楽大作。

La La Land

In April 2019, I watched the musical La La Land for the first time at Kinema Junpo Theater. I was really moved by the serious and sophisticated movie, yet the optimistic musical The Greatest Showman, which I watched one week later, was quite amusing, moreover, its music was too fantastic to remember how moved I had been by La La Land, though I thought that I would watch it again someday in a relaxed mood every time I saw the movie title on the internet. Then, in January 2021, I finally watched it at Marunouchi Piccadilly, a theater in Tokyo, again.

The film follows a young man and a young woman. The man is a jazz pianist. The woman goes for an actress. They are drawn to each other and encourage themselves to chase their respective dreams.

The young man and woman firstly meet in a traffic jam when they have ill feelings against each other. They meet again when Mia has a bad feeling against Seb but she was at least attracted by his piano performance. After that, they encounter in a party when they gradually become friends and finally start to date with each other. They also encourage themselves to make their respective dreams come true.

At the beginning, Mia looks unappealing, so I suspected that Emma Stone playing Mia had become unattractive before I knew it. She, however, gets increasingly pretty as she becomes friends and starts to date with Seb. I was really impressed by how she gets attractive falling in love with him. I thought that Ryan Gosling also gave a wonderful performance as Seb, all the same, I felt that Stone's performance was more fantastic.

I was most impressed with the scene where Mia gazes at Seb who is playing the keyboard instrument with a vague smile as a member of his old friend's band in a concert. In fact, I shed tears when I watched it for the second time. I then felt as if the two characters in the scene were asking me whether I live true to myself. 

ラ・ラ・ランド

2019年４月、キネマ旬報シアターにて、ミュージカル映画『ラ・ラ・ランド』を初観覧。リアルでシリアスな物語と洗練された作りに感動した。ただ、その一週間後に観覧した、楽天的なミュージカル『グレイテスト・ショーマン』が楽しすぎて、そして、その楽曲が素晴らしすぎて、本作の感動は薄れてしまっていった。だが、ネット上で本作のタイトルを目にするたびに、いつかまたゆっくり観賞しようと思ってはいた。そして、2021年１月、満を持して、丸の内ピカデリーにて再観覧した。

ジャズ・ピアニストのセブと女優志望のミアが、惹かれ合いながら、励まし合いながら、それぞれの夢を追いかける物語。

その若い二人は、まず、交通渋滞の中で出会った。その時の印象は、お互いあまりよくなくて、その後の再会の時もそうだった。だが、その再会時、ミアは、セブのピアノ演奏には惹かれていた。そして、その後も、またあるパーティで再会。それから、二人の距離は徐々に縮まり、いつしか、恋人同士になり、お互いの夢を応援することとなった。

ミアを演じているのは、エマ・ストーン。ストーンってこんなにブスだったっけと感じる程、序盤のミアは魅力的ではないが、セブと仲良くなり恋仲になっていくにつれて、彼女はどんどん可愛らしくなっていく。恋をして綺麗になっていくミアには本当に魅せられた。セブ役のライアン・ゴズリングも好演していたが、ミアを演じたストーンの方が光って見えた。

一番印象に残ったのは、旧友のバンドに加わって、コンサートで何とも言えない笑みを浮かべながら演奏しているセブを、ミアが見つめるシーン。その二人に、自分に嘘をついていないか問われた気がして、２回目の観賞時は、涙が零れた。

The Back to the Future Trilogy

In fall 2020, I watched the Back to the Future trilogy on TV for the first time. I do not like time travel stories, so I had not watched the trilogy for a long time. I, however, came to want to watch Tenet, a time travel movie, when the movie was just released and it seemed intrigued. At the same time, I finally got interested in the Back to the Future series because watching the old time travel movies was good for preparation to watch the new one. Thus, I started to watch the trilogy.

The stories follow a high school boy named Marty and an old man called Doc, who is a scientist and a best friend of Marty. Marty gets in the time-traveling machine built by Doc and goes to the past and the future. Michael J. Fox as Marty and Christopher Lloyd as Doc are a good combination.

The first installment of the trilogy was released in 1985. It is set in California. Marty gets into the time-traveling automobile and is accidentally sent from 1985 to 1955 where he meets his young father and mother who have not married yet. Marty's teenage mother played by Lea Thompson especially looked really charming. I also was interested in the scene where Marty is singing "Johnny B. Goode" playing the guitar on a stage when a member of the band call a person appearing to be Chuck Berry in order to make the person listen to Marty's performance. If the scene was filmed today, it would cause a controversy about white supremacism.

The second installment was released in 1989. Marty, Doc and Marty's girlfriend go from 1985 to 2015. I had to watch it before 2015. I laughed at bulky television sets and fax machines. Then I gave up understanding the complicated time-series after the middle, so I thought at that time that I would never understand the seemingly more complex time-series in Tenet, which I planned to watch in several days.

The third was done in 1990. Marty returned to 1955 in Part II. He goes from 1955 to 1855. I laughed at the diminutive Marty calling himself Clint Eastwood, who is far taller and used to be a Spaghetti Western star.

I had not been a fan of Michael J. Fox but I could understand why the small actor had been quite popular thanks to the trilogy full of the charm of him.

バック・トゥ・ザ・フューチャー３部作

2020年秋、『バック・トゥ・ザ・フューチャー』３部作をTVにて初観賞。タイムトラベル物はあまり好きではない為、ずっと観る気になれなかったのだが、同じくタイムトラベル物で、当時公開されたばかりの『TENET テネット』がとても面白そうで観覧したくもなり、同時に、タイムトラベルつながりで『BTTF』にもようやく興味が湧き、『テネット』の予習も兼ねて観ることにした。

高校生のマーティが、かなり年上で科学者でもある、彼の親友ドクが発明したタイムマシンに乗って、過去や未来に行くお話。マーティ役はマイケル・J・フォックスでドク役はクリストファー・ロイド。名コンビだ。

１作目の公開は1985年。舞台も1985年のアメリカで、マーティがタイムマシンで30年前の1955年に行ってしまい、そこで、まだ結婚前の若い彼の父や母ロレインに出会ってしまう。このロレイン役のリー・トンプソンがとても愛らしい。気になった場面は、マーティがステージでチャック・ベリーの「ジョニー・Ｂ・グッド」を演奏していた時、それを観ていたバンドメンバーがチャック・ベリーらしき人物に電話を通じてそれを聴かせていたシーン。今だったら、白人至上主義と騒がれることだろう。

２作目の公開は1989年。1985年から2015年にタイムトラベル。2015年以前に観るべきだった物語。ファックスと分厚いテレビに笑ってしまった。また、複雑すぎる時系列を理解するのを早々にあきらめてしまい、この調子ではその数日後に観覧するつもりだった『テネット』は絶対に理解できないだろうと思った。

３作目は1990年公開。前作の後半で戻った1955年から1855年にタイムトラベル。小柄なマーティが、マカロニウエスタンのスター俳優でもあった、長身のクリント・イーストウッドの名を騙っていた事に笑ってしまった。

３作ともマイケル・J・フォックスの魅力満載で、彼のファンではなかったが、彼の人気の秘密が分かった気がした。