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La La Land: Here's To The Fools Who Dream
cj iwakura
The Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered User regular
The Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered User regular
Release Dates:
Dec 16 Limited (North America)
Dec 25 Wide (North America)
Trailers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBUXcNTjviI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je0aAf2f8XQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsNsoQV4alACast
Ryan Gosling
Emma Stone
John Legend
J.K. Simmons
Written & Directed By
Damien Chazelle
Music By
Justin Hurwitz
Despite seeming wildly different from Whiplash,
I feel it has a lot in common in terms of an underlying theme...
Still a gorgeous film, well worth experiencing, especially if you love musicals.
cj iwakura on
+2
Posts
La La Land is a modern homage (couched in a Bohemian love story) to the old Hollywood Movie Musicals, evoking images of Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire, Debbie Reynolds, and Bing Crosby. It is infused with spectacular dance numbers and catchy songs. While I felt like the singable songs in the movie were a bit sparse (aside from a tour-de-force whirlwind intro of "Another Day In the Sun" followed by "Someone in the Crowd"), the songs that they did have were instant classics. "The Audition" is probably going to become the new "This is the Moment"-or-"Send In the Clowns"-type audition song for years to come, and I can't stop singing it.
The thing that this movie really nails is the chemistry between Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. When they banter, it feels smooth and natural. When they fight, it feels like a realistic fight. The affection feels genuine, and they seem to coax the best parts of each other.
What really blew me away about this movie, though, was the ending. I'll put the reasons why in the spoilers, but suffice to say, it was one of the best endings that I've seen.
The movie often crosses the line between fantasy and reality, in a manner similar to "Across the Universe" (They literally do the slow-motion singing-and-walking scene, but at an LA party instead of a football field). Musicals often do this, because obviously, no one is following you with an orchestra, and you aren't bursting into song at random dramatic moments(unless you are me, of course), but this movie leans in heavily to that aesthetic, effortlessly moving back and forth. All of this is done meaningfully and deliberately to thematically set up the aforementioned ending, which I didn't entirely appreciate while watching the film until I saw the end.
If you love musicals, love stories, or the old Hollywood movie musicals, then you'll love this film.
SPOILER commentary:
The ending to "La La Land" is similar to the opening montage in "Up", except done in reverse. Whereas in "Up", it felt like a gut-punch because montage occurred at the very beginning of the film, the montage in "La La Land" isn't as emotionally jarring because it occurs at the end. But in both cases, everything about each respective film informs and enriches the montage and vice versa.
The montage at the ending takes place during an epilogue, 5 years after the events of the main part of the film. Up until the montage, "La La Land" could have been a love story without fantastic elements or musical numbers with song and dance. But with the ending, you see the reason why the movie had to be a musical and had to have fantasy elements. It plays into the notion that in all relationships, we have a fantasy perfect version that we aspire to in our heads, but in the end, we have to come back to reality.
And the reality isn't necessarily terrible, either! In the movie, both characters achieve their dreams in a big way. You can't help but to think what might have been (and, indeed, a montage may be one of the best metaphors for that specific regret), and there is a bittersweet smile that is shared between them in a crowded room. It was a real "We'll always have Paris" Casablanca moment (which is name-dropped directly in the film), and like Casablanca, the ending is one of those rare ones that elevates the film to the point where you can't imagine this movie without it.
They wish for what could have been, but in the end, they have nearly everything they ever wanted. Just not together. And life goes on and all that. They'll always have Paris/La La Land.
That smile they share together at the very end was a sort of Thank You, a thank you for making romance a part of my life. They are saying "I needed that" because artists crave that sort of connection.
Two random notes:
There is a meme called "Ryan Gosling Won't Eat His Cereal". You'll see a LOT of these kind of moments throughout the film, if you are aware of this meme.
I can't completely recall, but I think that the main characters never explicitly say "I love you" until near the very end, and even then, it is couched as "I will always love you". I thought that was nice.
I also enjoyed the constant theme of "old versus new", which I suppose in unavoidable in a modern film that plays with nostalgia to the bygone era of Hollywood. But the whole discussion about traditional jazz dying away, the history behind the studio lot where Emma Stone works as a barista, even the differences between Sebastian's and Mia's cars, all seem to play off this theme.
So, this article showed up on Vox (Spoilers abound):
http://www.vox.com/culture/2017/1/5/14153546/emma-stone-la-la-land-best-actress
It is a different perspective on "La La Land" (which I loved and apparently, the author loved as well). I don't necessarily agree with some of the core premises of the article, but it was interesting to read. (I also agree with some parts of the article, too! Don't get me wrong.)
To be fair, Mia's exposition moment is similarly maudlin! They walk, impossibly, through a studio lot chatting, and she explains why she does what she does. Neither one of these scenes show me the character, they just tell me in so many words. Yeah, the scene with Sebastian's sister humanizes him (we never see her again!), but so does the scene with Mia and her roommates or her parents.
Again, I recognize that it may be a difference of perspective. I have been around more talented musicians, but few talented TV/Screen actors. So it may be easier for me to see that "jazz bro" archetype as a cliche, rather than the aspiring young actress archetype (which I'm struggling to conjure in a recent movie... as in, a movie with prominent smartphones). The jazz parts seemed more like a quote from one of my favorite TV shows where a character says to the anthropology geek "OK, this is the part where you start talking really really fast." Cut to footage of aging African-American musicians to hammer the point.
Mia strikes out of her comfort zone. She had settled for failing audition after audition, working as a barista, attached to a rich and successful boyfriend. Her disillusionment with her life is immediately apparent in the scene where she leaves the bathroom at the rousing party, and everything is in slow motion. But she drops the boyfriend to take a chance on Sebastian (okay, he's Ryan Gosling and the lead, we get it!). Instead of going for big audition parts, she tries to write a personal one-woman show. It can be argued that this is part of her orbit around Sebastian's character, but Sebastian does very little to actually spur these choices (and, in fact, ends up actually downplaying them).
In love stories, I like to think of the two leads as planetary bodies that swing by each other in space and manage to catch each other in their respective gravity. They swing in orbit around each other in a celestial dance, much like the sweeping waltzes during this movie's dream sequences . When Sebastian pulls away from Mia (surprise, surprise, the poor bohemian musician sells out), she doesn't get pulled along with him. She pulls away to chart her own course. And even when he course-corrects to try to swing in time with her, it is clear that it is too late.
Sebastian's "shining" solo moment is when his eyes are glazed over, playing a keyboard with one hand, a background musician in a performance that he does not love. Mia's solo shining moment is one of the most powerful scenes in the film.
And did Mia leave anything behind on Sebastian's life? I think it's pretty clear, as a bright neon sign literally glowing in his club.
I'm very open to the idea, however, that any quibbles that I might have had with the writing of Mia was masked by Emma Stone's outstanding performance. She knocked this one out of the park. Ryan Gosling mostly did his usual "I'm not going to eat cereal" expressions.
It's worth noting, the record for most Golden globes won by a single film was six
maybe i'm streaming terrible dj right now if i am its here
edit: He does quite a bit of mansplaining Jazz, but I don't think that is portrayed as a very positive trait of his. Though that might just be my personal reading of those scene and can certainly read differently.