La La Land
I was very excited about this movie ever since I first saw the trailer. Listening to the original soundtrack made me love it a lot more even before even seeing it. And now that I have finally achieved my seemingly never-ending dream to watch it, here is my two cents on the film.
[spoilers ahead]
First thing we see in the movie is a Grease-like scenery, where people stuck in traffic come out of their cars one by one and start singing. Another Day of Sun transforms the usually grimy traffic jam into this uplifting mood where every driver steps out of their bubbles and sing and dance together. This scene also sets the colorful tone for the entire film to come. Seriously, you can’t pinpoint much black anywhere.
And just like other musicals, people get back to their normal ways; a man honks at a woman which we see is actually Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and Mia (Emma Stone) and they flip each other off — like guys, this is fate.
Although they pose bad first impressions, like in the scene after Sebastian gets fired, and Mia wants to give him some compliment for his genuine performance, he completely brushes her away (this was completely unexpected since in the trailer, they just kiss each other right away. I was actually wondering how they were going to explain this later in the film when I saw this in the trailer, but I guess not!), they keep running into each other, so they start dating.
Actually, Mia ditches her current boyfriend for Sebastian. I guess if you feel strongly about something, you should go for it cause love isn’t logical? Not sure of the meaning here, but this isn’t the point of the movie.
Okay, so when Sebastian plays his piece at the restaurant (Mia & Sebastian’s Theme), this is when I fell in love with Ryan Gosling. I don’t know whether it was the spotlight or his hair, but his piano playing was so dramatic and natural, and apparently, he actually learned to play the piece in real life. That’s super impressive and attractive for an actor to go through this musical effort for a real performance in the film.
Damien really focuses a lot of the film on how their relationship evolves over time. Every color and lighting is carefully picked, and every camera point indulges in the actor’s facial and body expressions.
This is all really in preparation for the Epilogue — quite similar to how Damien ended Whiplash.
The Epilogue is a pure masterpiece, considering the timing and compactness of the fast-paced — but enough to sink in the emotions — alternative flashback scenes. The music and the visual dancing composes the entire story without having to speak a single word, similar to the Married Life from Pixar’s Up. Justin Hurwitz pulls an elaborate medley of previous soundtracks to really illustrate head-over-heels love for the film, music, and the couple and the desire — no, the real NEED for their happy ending together.
This last sequence is a real silencer on the audience. It reminds us that there is never always a happy ending in life. It reminds us that life involves sacrifices and that there is timing for everything.
But what really makes this film is the last eye contact Mia and Sebastian make to each other. And the slow but graceful nod that he makes to her that makes me want to kill myself because the freedom he gave to her for following her dream and the acceptance of these real-life consequences are so beautiful; because this is life, and they smile at each other to gracefully accept each other’s new beginnings as they finally achieved their individual dreams.
Edit:
Okay, after a few days of watching this film, I can see another perspective on the film. I have been in so much love with the music and the vibrant colors, that I may have forced myself to also love the storyline and the acting in the film as well. So after writing this review and replaying the plot to myself, I also could come to an uncomfortable conclusion regarding the storyline — that it isn’t as deep as I wanted it to be and that it wasn’t as heart-wrenching and didn’t quite match the depth of the film score. At least not at the level of Whiplash.
However, with Justin Hurwitz’s capturing composition of orchestral jazz chorus with occasional piano and trumpet cadenzas, La La Land still gives me the perfect escapism and reminds ourselves that life is beautiful and it goes on despite the sacrifices involved.
You can listen to the entire original film score on Spotify now, but here is my favorite piece — the Epilogue that captured the ending sequence of La La Land:
