DIRECTOR: Damien Chazelle
COMPOSER: Justin Hurwitz
STARRING: Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling
GENRE: Musical, Romance
RATING: M
RUNNING TIME: 128 minutes
(review contains mild spoilers)
“Here’s to the fools who dream,” sings Emma Stone in this
contemporary musical which pays homage to the classics. It’s an apt description
of the ideal audience for this film about two people with big dreams,
navigating Hollywood with fluctuating and contrasting levels of optimism and
cynicism.
Sebastian—struggling jazz musician—and Mia—struggling actress—seem
ill-fated to get along after Sebastian brushes Mia off as she tries to pay him
a compliment after hearing him perform. Months later they meet and realise
there’s something between them, and their relationship grows as they encourage each
other in their artistic pursuits.
Storywise, La La Land
isn’t anything new. It’s a romance. Boy meets girl in not-ideal circumstances
and they don’t hit it off. Boy and girl keep meeting and get to know each
other. They fall in love. In a more modern twist than old musicals afforded
their couples, the romance between Sebastian and his jazz, and Mia and her
acting, is given as much emphasis as the traditional
romance, and ultimately wins out, though it is still the foundation for most of the plot.
On that note, it is sad that the romantic gestures from
Sebastian cannot disguise the fact that Ryan Gosling’s character is a
personified version of ‘mansplaining’. He’s self-centred, firmly idealistic
in a way that doesn’t allow personal growth, and holds himself in
a higher opinion than Mia, which is revealed in one of the film’s stand out
scenes for Stone and Gosling. If anything, it’s an analogy of commercial
Hollywood verse underground jazz. Or more bluntly, capitalism
verse ‘true art’.
In this way, La La
Land is also about cynicism verse optimism, and how far hope and belief can
take you. Is it better to keep striving for an ideal? Or to settle for
something comfortable?
It would be remiss to review La La Land and not talk about the wonderful aesthetic of the film.
Bright colours, and simple costumes that give the film a timelessness. From the
opening number, you’d expect a film set decades earlier, until Mia is shown talking
on a modern phone. This quirky mix of old-fashioned and contemporary works to
give the film a unique feel. The gorgeous cinematography (for which it has been
nominated for an Academy Award), adds to the romance of La La Land.
Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling work well together, as always,
and arguably the best scenes from the film are those they share.
On a critical note, this movie could have been improved by
casting better singers and dancers, and that’s in reference not only to the
leads—who are actors above anything else—but also the supporting cast. Maybe
that’s the payoff for deciding to record the singing live, as opposed to using
pre-recorded tracks. It might give better emotional performance, but it also
leaves you open to pitch and other issues.
La La Land sweeps
you up easily in its magic and romance, from the bang of the enthusiastic opening
scene through to the compulsory dream sequence of the finale. In hindsight, it
loses charm to analysis, but it’s a good film, well acted, and with a great
original score.
3 out of 5.
Until next time.
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