https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/la-la-land/id1179249419
Following Wednesday’s release of the teaser trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s ninth film, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, which returns to the classic Hollywood of yesteryear, I thought I would review a more modern take on Los Angeles, the “City of Stars”: 2016’s La La Land.
Directed by Damien Chazelle and starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, La La Land was essentially the Oscar Best Picture runner-up behind Moonlight, and by mistake!
Suffice it to say this is a great film, in addition to being a musical. Everything from the music to the cast – which even includes renowned singer-songwriter John Legend – flows seamlessly. Boasting a costume and color scheme that closely resembles Les parapluies de Cherbourg (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, a 1964 French classic) – intentionally, as Chazelle has indicated in many interviews), the film is both nostalgic and modern. One particular juxtaposition, among the best in the film, involves Stone’s character, Mia, dancing in classic multicolored Hollywood attire with her friends before jumping into…wait for it, a Prius!
Chazelle’s knowledge of his profession is innate; after his smash-hit Whiplash (2014), he returned to his French roots and crafted an intimate portrayal of lovers, dreamers, and the true essence of Hollywood. His sense of viewer engagement and cinematic rhythm – foreshadowing, buildup to the ending, character development, etc. – are perfect.
From an acting standpoint, Stone and Gosling are quite well-cast. Gosling is a bit wooden at times, and Stone can be a little too contemplative, but they each fit perfectly into their respective roles. Gosling already demonstrated his acting chops as an eccentric business executive in The Big Short (2015), and he remains a stalwart this time around. His more timid, reserved nature fit well into the role of Sebastian, a slightly extroverted but overall modest jazz musician.
The sentimentality that the trio of Chazelle, Stone, and Gosling add to the film is undeniable, but the film is not without flaw. The film’s ending (spoiler alert!), albeit extremely revolutionary – quite French in its lack of a traditional happy ending – is poorly introduced. Though handsome, Tom Everett Scott, best known as Guy, the young, ambitious drummer in the Tom Hanks-directed That Thing You Do (1996), is portrayed as overly condescending. For example, Scott’s character, Mia’s husband, and Mia employ a Hispanic housekeeper in their home, while in their flashbacks, Mia and Sebastian employ a white nanny. This sort of racial subtext exaggerates the disparity between Mia’s husband and her ideal life with Sebastian, but I do not believe that Scott is effectively utilized as an actor.
These are just minor criticisms, but overall, La La Land is a masterpiece!
Final rating: 3 out of 4 stars
I really want to see La La Land, but I was wondering where you rank this film among other dance movie classics like Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Footloose, Mamma Mia, and Mamma Mia 2? If it is at the level of those films then I surely will be glad to watch it!
With this piece, you have definitively proven yourself a very insightful reviewer and a very poor grammarian. When one has an end parenthesis, one usually cares to include a starting one as well. Despite this glaring error, I enjoyed the review and plan to watch the film at a later time. Good day, sir.
First off, I just want to say that Les parapluies de Cherbourg is one of my favorite movies!! It is heartbreakingly beautiful if you ask me. Anyway, I really liked the way that you review films, and having never seen La La Land, your review makes me feel like I need to! It is definitely going on my “to watch” list! Overall, great post!
I can remember seeing La La Land, and the same things that stuck out to you stuck out to me too – the music and the colors. I think to a specific scene earlier in the movie where Stone’s character is at a pool party and everyone had on brightly colored swimsuits and dresses and how cool I thought that looked on screen. Also, I’m a big fan of the music in this film, especially the keys they put the songs in and how Gosling and Stone perform with each other. And you’re right – the ending was a surprise for “happy ending” fans, and although I appreciated what they were going for, I too agree it wasn’t executed all that well. This is such a cool blog idea and I wish I found it earlier so I could have looked at your other takes… I guess I’ll be doing some reading this weekend – well done!
As a jazz musician, La La Land is one of my favorite movies. It does a fantastic job of portraying what the world of jazz is actually like (although I disagree that “jazz is dying,” Sebastian’s point is valid). In fact, Keith’s band is a great example of modernization of jazz-esque music. Artists like Snarky Puppy, Aberdeen, and Chris Potter all are popular jazz-ish bands that fuse jazz arrangement styles and modern trends into a fantastic blend of old and new.
I contrast this with my opinion of Whiplash: Although Whiplash is a fine movie, it does a very poor job of explaining jazz in the education system. Whiplash portrays music like a sport. However, personally, the enjoyment comes from *making* music. Not once does Whiplash convey this incredible, indescribable feeling of accomplishment.
As someone who’s never seen La La Land, I found this blog quite informative. It’s interesting to me because this film is a little outside-of-the-box when compared to other blockbusters. I can see how it has some French flair in it and I’ll have to watch it sometime in the future.
I have always been very into musicals, but surprisingly I have yet to see this one! I found this post very helpful in terms of filling in some gaps that I was previously unsure of in terms of the film itself. Overall, I have enjoyed reading your reviews and definitely have quite a few movies to add to my “watch next” list!