La La Land
Directed by: Damien Chazelle
Written by: Damien Chazelle
Starring: Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, John Legend, J.K. Simmons, Rosemarie DeWitt, Finn Wittrock, Callie Hernandez, Sonoya Mizuno, Jessica Rothe
Comedy/Drama/Musical - 128 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 14 Dec 2016
Written by: Damien Chazelle
Starring: Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, John Legend, J.K. Simmons, Rosemarie DeWitt, Finn Wittrock, Callie Hernandez, Sonoya Mizuno, Jessica Rothe
Comedy/Drama/Musical - 128 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 14 Dec 2016
There is a chorus of bravo accolades being offered toward the execs behind La La Land for being so brave and courageous in bringing a musical to the big screen in such a jaded time to audiences unfamiliar with the song and dance extravaganzas of the past. Oh, how quickly we forget about Moulin Rouge, Chicago, Nine, and Into the Woods. Musicals are not as rare as people think; there are more of them than Star Wars films for instance. They continue to make money too; studios collected windfalls and Oscars from three of the four musicals mentioned above. They will do so again with La La Land, a brilliant film led by two dreamy leads whose eventual professional success may drive them apart. La La Land is one of the year's best films and it is not because its songs, lyrics, and dance moves are jaw-dropping; they are not. It is director Damien Chazelle’s original story, creative methods of bringing it across, and perhaps the best ending in this year’s cinema.
Damien Chazelle put himself on the map two years ago as a director to watch out for with Whiplash. The story of a jazz drummer struggling under the tyrannical tutelage of J.K. Simmons is a movie none of us will soon forget. Academy voters awarded it three Oscars. Sticking close to the jazz realm, Chazelle shapes his leading male character, Sebastian (Ryan Gosling, The Nice Guys), into a jazz pianist and hardcore traditionalist. Crushed that modern music lovers ignore jazz as an art form and possessed with the urge to bring it back through a successful jazz club reminding folks of the heyday of jazz, Sebastian is unsurprisingly poor, single, and habitually unemployed.
Damien Chazelle put himself on the map two years ago as a director to watch out for with Whiplash. The story of a jazz drummer struggling under the tyrannical tutelage of J.K. Simmons is a movie none of us will soon forget. Academy voters awarded it three Oscars. Sticking close to the jazz realm, Chazelle shapes his leading male character, Sebastian (Ryan Gosling, The Nice Guys), into a jazz pianist and hardcore traditionalist. Crushed that modern music lovers ignore jazz as an art form and possessed with the urge to bring it back through a successful jazz club reminding folks of the heyday of jazz, Sebastian is unsurprisingly poor, single, and habitually unemployed.
Sebastian is not the only dreamer in Los Angeles though. Mia (Emma Stone, Birdman) is one of a couple thousand aspiring actresses who works a barista job on a movie lot frequently star struck when a leading actress breezes through for a cappuccino. Mia’s auditions are usually interrupted, ignored, or doomed to catastrophe before they even begin with a wardrobe malfunction. She also keeps running into this rude, but intriguing guy named Sebastian. A first meeting at the end of the film’s opening number on a gridlocked Los Angeles freeway results in honking and a middle finger; one of the more memorable meet cutes in a romantic musical.
Mia and Sebastian run into each other a couple more times before La La Land nails its first great song and dance routine on a road with a bench and a street lamp as Gosling and Stone sing and tap dance to a wonderful song called “A Lovely Night” about how there is no spark between them and they should just enjoy the sunset. The song “City of Stars” is the one garnering all the attention and awards, but take it from me and the movie poster, “A Lovely Night” is the film’s musical pinnacle. La La Land is not drenched in continuous songs like the 1950s films mimics. An American in Paris feels like it never moves because all it is is belting and prancing. La La Land has an in-depth script and only every now and then descends, and sometimes even ascends, into musical numbers.
La La Land is also a love letter to Los Angeles as a city and destination for the artistic dreamers of the world. Our duo actually dance up into the planetarium ceiling of the Griffith Park Observatory to twirl around after taking in Rebel Without a Cause at the iconic Rialto Theater. Mia and Sebastian kickstart each others ambitions as they fall in love. He tells her to forget about these silly auditions. If she really wants to act, then she should write her own material, find a stage, and act. She tells him a little compromise will go a long way to achieving his jazz goals. The club doesn’t have to be at a specific locale and he can earn some much needed dough by playing more contemporary jazz fusion with his old friend, Keith (John Legend), in Legend’s first major movie role.
Gosling plays a lot of piano in the film and, I was watching for it, the camera never zooms directly in on his hands, a key tell someone else is playing the instrument. Apparently, Gosling studied and practiced for months to play the material himself which gives La La Land a strong authentic air. For a musical, the package feels raw and real. Gosling and Stone are not born and bred professional singers and dancers. They make small mistakes and come off choppy at times which is all for the film’s benefit. Leave the spit and polish for Gigi and The Sound of Music. Mia and Sebastian are real characters trying to make it in this crazy town and are head over heels falling in love; their routines should contain pauses and stutter steps.
We’ve seen Gosling and Stone paired together twice before, but in supporting roles in Crazy, Stupid, Love and Gangster Squad. Seeing them front and center but again as a couple lends a sort of Fred and Ginger aspect to the duo. Astair and Rogers were paired together all the time and Chazelle played on that giving us a pair of actors we know go together instead of matching two cinematic strangers. La La Land is deeper than your standard escapist musical. There are real pressures driving Sebastian and Mia in different directions. I understand if some folks consider the end a cop out or cheating, but I believe it threads the needle just enough to throttle the audience right before they hit the exit. The entire endeavor could easily have collapsed in on itself and been a muddled mess, but Chazelle makes it work. La La Land may be for the dreamers, but reality has a way of keeping those dreams in check.
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