Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

Director- Hans Canosa
Writers: Gabrielle Zevin (novel)

Naomi Sukuse- Maki Horikita
Gabrielle Zevin (screenplay)
Alice Leeds- Emma Roberts
Ace Zuckerman- Anton Yelchin
Yûji Miwa- Ken'ichi Matsuyama



Right before I saw the film Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, I was sitting at a lunch table with a film director. This meeting happened completely by accident of course but he gave me some good advice. He told me that most of the mistakes made by directors are in the actors’ performances and the dialogue. Sometimes a director becomes so focused on different camera angles and setting up interesting looking shots, they forget about the performances and believability of their film. For an actor, it is important for the audience to see you as a real person. When someone watches you on screen, is he or she seeing you live your life, or are they seeing you pretend to live someone else’s? If you are pretending, your acting isn’t believable and the audience will not relate to the character. But even the best actor cannot overcome horrible dialogue (or at least that’s what my new director friend says). The mistake filmmakers make with dialogue is having their characters say too much. In real life, most people don’t actually say everything they’re thinking out loud. Many of our thoughts are either too stupid, inappropriate, or unnecessary to say. But in a movie with bad dialogue, the characters will always say what they are thinking. Even if what they have to say is stupid, inappropriate, or unnecessary. But good dialogue, according to the director, is all about intention. Characters say certain things and behave a certain way to get a reaction from another character. That is how real people interact with one another. And that is what makes for a good movie. Believability.

After talking to the mysterious film director, I walked into the movie Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac. The first thing I noticed was, of course, the acting and the dialogue. The characters in this movie said everything. Every thought, every plot device, even their actions are spoken. My director friend says that if you can show something, you should show it. You don’t have to say everything (and you shouldn’t). Many of the shots in this film move too quickly to show anything with purpose or intention but there are so many different shots that sometimes the audience does not know for sure what is going on.

The film has the same characters as most teen romantic dramas; the jerk/jock boyfriend, the artsy friendly but not really a friend girl, the mysterious loner, the sweet but obsessive best friend, and the charming and clumsy protagonist. I was sure I knew what this film was all about when it started. In the film, the charming and clumsy protagonist, Naomi, falls down a flight of stairs trying to catch her friend’s camera. She injures her head and a mysterious loner named Yûji takes her to the hospital. This encounter leads to a relationship between Naomi and Yûji. Why wouldn’t she fall in love with some weird guy she doesn’t even know, I mean, this is a movie isn’t it? Naomi tells everyone that she is suffering from memory loss. But I noticed she only seems to forget things like, her old boyfriend and her obsessive best guy friend. This is explained later in the film when we find out the secret Naomi has been keeping. Her revelation is what made the film worth watching. Like I mentioned before, the film says everything. So when it is finally revealed that Naomi had been lying about her amnesia, the film explains it in great detail. I learned that Naomi had purposely thrown herself down the stairs in order to meet Yûji. She did this because she didn’t want to fall in love with her best friend. Naomi describes her actions as “throwing herself away from something towards something else.” It is a strange way to meet someone but I’m glad she did it. And even though you don’t have to say everything, I’m glad the film said this because it was important to explain the intention of her actions. I would recommend the first hour and a half of this movie. The beginning will seem familiar but there will be points in the movie that are unique. But after those points, the movie’s way of saying everything will start to wear on you. So after about the first hour and some, feel free to walk. I might have enjoyed the movie more if I had.