Here’s To The Fools Who Dream: “La La Land” And Why We All Need To Watch It
Movies about how great movies are. Only by that the viewer can already feel excited, and more, if it’s well executed. This film is definitively the case. It’s a musical, and a love story, but that doesn’t keep it from shining. The film gives a perfect balance between the epic elements and the dramatic elements, while also having very good and clever comedic moments. Damien Chazelle has consecrated himself as one of the greatest, most influential contemporary directors, he has won every single accolade for it, because he deserves to. “Whiplash” was great, but certainly no masterpiece, “La La Land” surpasses the boundaries of what a masterpiece should be. Unfortunately, its flare and constant triumphs have generated a massive severe backlash on the film, thus there is a huge community of “La La Land” haters which is unfortunately just as big as its lovers community. There are plenty of subjects that should be discussed in this review. And they will. This is an analyzed, explained, and sincere review of the film “La La Land”, but most importantly, aside from all that, it is fully written by me, a lover of film and of THE film.
First thing’s first, I gotta tell you about the film’s backdrop. Damien Chazelle started out in the business as a writer. His films were small and very irrelevant, although they got positive reviews, they were not mainstream movies at all. During the early 2010’s, he wrote 2 very different scripts; one was an epic, colorful and blissful musical, and the other one was a dark and unpleasant drama about music and obsession. Notice that both of those are related to music, and that’s because Chazelle is an avid fan of music, and more specifically, a fan of Jazz. Both of those movies feature Jazz prominently, one covers subjects about dream fulfilling and hopeful love, and the other one is about obsession, despair, pushing it to the limit. He wanted to make the musical first, but he didn’t have enough money, so he went with the other alternative, BUT, he wasn’t able to get the funding from the adequate producers. He converted the latter script into a short film that premiered at Sundance in 2013 and was received with wide acclaim. He got the funding right after the short premiered, and in late 2014, the film “Whiplash” was released in theaters starring Miles Teller and J. K. Simmons. The film, while not very successful at the box-office, managed to get some of the highest scores critics could give and received quite a handful of accolades, among them, 3 Oscars for Supporting Actor (For Simmons), its Editing, and its Sound Mixing. Finally, after “Whiplash” was a critical hit, Chazelle was able to fulfill his original dream. With the funding of Jordan Horowitz, Gary Gilbert, Fred Berger, and Marc Platt, and the help of some of his “Whiplash” crew including music composer Justin Hurwitz and film editor Tom Cross, AND, with the acting talents of Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, Chazelle released “La La Land” for christmas 2016.
Production of “La La Land” began in 2010 with the first draft of the script. Later, after the critical success of “Whiplash” in 2014 (And part of 2015), Writer/Director Damien Chazelle received the funding for “La La Land” and had Jordan Horowitz, Gary Gilbert, Fred Berger & Marc Platt helm the production. The film was distributed by Lionsgate and released internationally by Summit Entertainment. Justin Hurwitz, former roommate of Chazelle’s and composer for the film, also wrote the music for all the songs aided by lyricists Benj Pasek & Justin Paul (With the exception of “Start A Fire”). The Editing was helmed by Oscar winner Tom Cross, the Production Design by David Wasco & Sandy Reynolds-Wasco, the Cinematography by DP Linus Sandgren, the radiant costumes by Mary Zophres, and the sound department was led by Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee, Steve A. Morrow & Mildred Iatrou Morgan. For the leading roles, Chazelle considered Miles Teller, who had starred in his previous film “Whiplash”, for the role of Sebastian “Seb” Wilder, an eccentric but unlucky Jazz pianist, however, Ryan Gosling, who at the time was auditioning for the film “Beauty and the Beast” (2017), ultimately landed the role after dropping from the previous one. For the role of Mia Dolan, a talented but snubbed film actress, Emma Watson was almost cast, but, ironically, she decided to play the titular character in the aforementioned “Beauty and the Beast”, so, acclaimed up-and-coming actress Emily “Emma” Stone was cast instead after Chazelle saw her in a stage production of “Cabaret”, presumably in 2015. The cast also features Rosemarie DeWitt, John Legend, Callie Hernández, Sonoya Mizuno, Jessica Rothenberg, D. A. Wallach, and the main antagonist of “Whiplash”, a muse for Jason Reitman and a close friend to Damien Chazelle, J. K. Simmons. The directing of the film was met with the necessity of choreographer Mandy Moore for the big musical numbers such as “Another Day Of Sun” and “Someone In The Crowd”; both scenes are helmed as some of the most challenging and most well directed of the film. Other scenes like the iconic planetarium scene and the climactic epilogue are also huge highlights on how the film is shot and directed. Some scenes, like in many movies required to be shot countless times before the director picks the most accurate to his original vision. Ironically, in one of the most breathtaking scenes, Chazelle asked Emma Stone to record the song “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)” several times before picking the second shot. “La La Land” was inspired by some of the biggest and most acclaimed musicals such as “West Side Story” (1961), “Singin’ In The Rain” (1952) and Chazelle’s personal favorite film “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” (1964). “La La Land” was first released in many Film Festivals throughout the last months of 2016, including the Venice Film Festival and the AFI Fest, and later, it had its premiere in Westwood, CA. On December 9th, the film had a brief run in selected theaters before opening nationwide on December 25th, from that day on, the film was released worldwide on different dates dating from December 2016 to March 2017. The acclaimed songs are the following: “Another Day Of Sun” (Performed by the Cast), “Someone In The Crowd” (Performed by Emma Stone, Sonoya Mizuno, Callie Hernández & Jessica Rothenberg with the Cast), “A Lovely Night” (Performed by Emma Stone & Ryan Gosling), “City Of Stars” (Performed by Emma Stone & Ryan Gosling; Winner of an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a Critics Choice Award for Best Original Song), “Start A Fire” (Performed by John Legend) and “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)” (Performed by Emma Stone; Nominated for an Oscar and a Critics Choice Award for Best Original Song).
If you want to avoid spoilers or potential spoilers of the motion picture “La La Land”, I suggest you skipping over to the next part of the blog, as this section will be the fully detailed plot of the whole film with a brief review and detailed explanations.
LET’S GO!
The story is not set on a specific year, however, from the title you already know it’s set in Los Ángeles, California. (Los Ángeles’ abbreviation is “L.A.” or “LA”, and it’s nickname is “The City Of Stars” or “La La Land”).
It’s Winter in Los Ángeles, albeit the film starts with “Another Day Of Sun”, a common day on which random citizens jump off their cars on a traffic jam in a freeway and sing a song that hints at the plot of the movie, I’m not going to explain that on detail, so, let’s carry on.
We’re introduced to our main characters, aspiring actress Mia Dolan, and eccentric musician Sebastian “Seb” Wilder. Mia endures heartbreaking auditions and is snubbed wherever she goes; she gets paid serving lattes to celebrities and lives with her best friends. On the other hand, Seb lives miserably, he’s constantly visited unprecedentedly by his hard-to-impress older sister as his front door is permanently damaged, and he can hardly nurture his dreams of becoming a Jazz icon.
One night, Mia is convinced by her friends to attend a party, where she might be able to land an acting role at last, supposing that “Someone In The Crowd” could be the one she needs to know, the one to finally lift her off the ground.
Her friends have a blast at the party, but Mia is still not sure if someone could “just notice her”, so, she leaves the party, and while walking down the street, she stumbles upon a club, where a pianist, tired of playing “Jingle Bells” and “Deck The Halls”, plays a touching Jazz musical piece from the bottom of his heart. That pianist happens to be Seb, and his performance leaves Mia very pleased, unlike the club’s owner, who hates Jazz and fires Seb for disobeying him. Seb leaves feeling neglected and incensed, and ignores Mia’s praisal.
Winter turns into Spring, Seb and Mia had never crossed paths again, but in a party where they both happen to be guests, they re-meet and introduce themselves properly. The party lasts the whole evening until dawn, and they swear in denial that they not into each other. They hardly know each other and their “relationship” is definitively not blossoming. They dance til sunrise in “A Lovely Night”, on which they decide to be “just friends”.
After that, they meet at a studio lot, and started chatting about their lives, getting to know more about each other, Mia tells Seb about her auditions, and how she longs to write her own show and act on it, Seb explains Mia about Jazz and why does he love Jazz so much; Jazz is beautiful, but it’s also conflict, and it’s compromise, and it’s very exciting. Much like Love. Once their day together is over, Seb asks Mia to a date to the movies, she agrees and leaves him flattered, so much so, that he feels like shining in a “City Of Stars”.
Mia fails to get one more part on an audition, but she feels compensated as she remembers having a date with Seb. However, her boyfriend has asked her to dinner on a restaurant on which the same tune played by Seb is played on the speakers. Mia runs away from the restaurant and gets to the movie theater in time, where she meets Seb who was waiting for her. They attempt to kiss but when the theater lights turn back on, they decide not to; so they head to the Griffith Observatory, where they dance through the halls and start floating in the planetarium, they continue dancing in “outer space” until they land back on earth and share their first kiss.
It’s Summer. Mia and Seb are finally dating, Mia is currently writing a script, per Seb’s advice, and Seb is playing Jazz at a bar. They are visited by a former friend of Seb’s, Keith, with whom he played on a Jazz band. Keith offers Seb a job as a piano player, but he declines.
With dreams of opening his own Jazz club but not having the funding to do so, Seb decides to try a chance on Keith’s gig, even though Keith’s ideals for Jazz are quite different from his. Mia quits her previous job and decides to move in with Seb, who has finally signed a deal with Keith’s band. They’re now sharing their dream of being together shining in a “City Of Stars”, but not for long, as it seems that they’re growing apart.
Seb gives countless concerts while on a tour with Keith’s band. Mia attends one, which begins like simple good ol’ Jazz and becomes a rousing and euphoric concert with dancers, electronic music and rock. Keith reveals his true colors as he proves to both Seb & Mia that he wanted to “Start A Fire”, and he couldn’t do so with classic Jazz. For the disgrace of Mia, Seb has become selfish and joined Keith on this “fire”, and has given up on his dreams in order to save money to open his club.
It’s now Fall. The movie theater Mia & Seb once visited is now closed. Mia has fully written her play and contacted many people that might be interested on attending. Seb has been on the road touring for a long time; however, he surprises Mia by returning home and cooking her dinner. He asks her to accompany his band in Boise, but she declines saying that she needs to be in LA because of the imminent release of her play. They argue roughly and this breaks Mia in tears.
Seb has promised Mia to attend her show but because of being busy working with Keith, he doesn’t. Mia’s show flops unfortunately and she completely ditches away her self-esteem. Seb tries to cheer her up, but he fails, and she decides to regroup and move back to her hometown in Boulder City, Nevada.
Time goes by, and Seb mistakenly receives a phone call from a casting director who’s looking for Mia. Moved by his love for her, Seb drives frantically to Boulder and picks her up, they return to LA to her audition. The casting directors are friendly and ask Mia to write the whole story that would become the script for a feature film. Mia tells them, from the bottom of her heart, about the story of an aunt of hers who used to live in Paris and threw herself into the Seine, an “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)” that successfully captivates the directors immediately.
Mia & Seb drive back to Griffith Park to catch up on each other’s lives. Mia is afraid of being too positive, but Seb is fully confident that she will fulfill her dreams and that she will go far in this life, an ambitious plan that sadly doesn’t include him.
It’s Winter once again, but five years later. Mia re-visits the coffee shop she used to work in, this time as a client. She’s driven away by a golf cart to a film set. Seb, on the other hand, is on a new Jazz club, testing a recently tuned piano and teaching an employee about business.
Mia returns home and greets her husband, who turns out to be other than Seb, but a man named David. They have a daughter together and live in an expensive home. Seb has a much better life than what he had five years ago, but he still lives alone.
Later that evening, Mia and David head to the premiere of her movie, but they fail to get there because of being stuck on a gridlock traffic jam. They decide to go to dinner in a nearby Jazz club, which happens to be Seb’s own Jazz club. Seb goes onstage and notices Mia accompanied by another man in the crowd. He starts playing their song in the piano. Lights center on him, and when they light back up, it’s revealed that we’re back in the exact same club on which Mia & Seb first met. Seb finishes playing, but instead of brushing Mia off like he did, he passionately kisses her.
This begins a lengthy but euphoric Epilogue, on which Seb turned Keith away on the first chance he had, Mia was very successful with her play, they walk beneath various film sets, they get married and have a child, a baby boy. They head to Mia’s premiere but get caught on the same gridlock traffic jam and head to the Jazz club where a different pianist is playing while Seb is sitting next to Mia. Mia seems closer and more affectionate with Seb than what she is with her husband. But when the song ends, it’s revealed that Seb is still at the piano and Mia has her husband next to her — It was all a fantasy.
The crowd applauds, loving the song. Mia’s husband asks her if she wants to stay, but she declines. The couple leaves but Mia stops at the door. She looks back and makes eye contact with Seb. He looks at her and nods with a smile. Mia smiles back with tears on her eyes and leaves. Seb takes a moment, and starts playing with his band.
The End
Just for you to know (If you haven’t noticed already), I’m a HUGE film buff. Film is my passion, I’ve been studying film for the past whole year and I love it. I will be a filmmaker for living, I love directing, screenwriting and acting, and I just appreciate film so much.
As many moviegoers do, I’m always looking forward to future releases and always stay updated on release schedules. By September/October of 2016, I saw a simple yet interesting poster, of course, it was the poster for “La La Land”. It caught my attention with the fact that it was directed by the man behind “Whiplash”, one of my favorite films and just a great film on its own right. It starred Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. I’m a straight man, so, I hadn’t seen many films starring him, because most of them are just “Ryan Gosling looking really handsome”; I had although just seen him on “The Nice Guys”, a great film that I really love and one on which he acted really good. On the other hand, I didn’t get to know Emma Stone in the best way possible, I first saw her in “The Amazing Spider-Man”, one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen in my life. However, I then saw her in “Birdman (Or The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance)”, which is the complete polar opposite of the aforementioned movie, and I completely fell in love with her when I saw “Easy A”. The poster also featured a scene from the movie and the tagline was “Here’s to the Fools Who Dream”.
A friend of mine was lucky enough to attend a screening of the film in Morelia at the Film Festival, and he told me he loved it. Two months after that, the ceremony of the Critics Choice Awards was held and the film earned several accolades including Best Picture, and the following morning, it received 7 noms at the Golden Globes, which, the next month, completely swept, and by “swept”, I mean ALL OF THEM, becoming the film with most wins in the history of the ceremony.
3 weeks after that, it received 14 Oscar Nominations. 14! This meant that it had just tied the record for most nominations with the films “All About Eve” and “Titanic”. On that weekend, my family and I had decided that we HAD to watch it as soon as possible; we went, and honestly, that wasn’t the greatest of days for me, I had a tough encounter with my mom and she was very upset with me at the moment of entering the movie theater, so there was no way of solving our conflict. So I was naturally very sad at that time, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy the film enough. But when the musical number of “Another Day Of Sun” roamed the scene, I was left flattered by its bliss and its highly pumped energy! I fell in love with everything! When the movie ended, my dad and I agreed that we could give it a 10 for a grade, but that it had to be multiplied for every single thing on it that has a 10.
(Note: My mom and I reconciled when the movie ended, don’t worry :D).
The subjects that the movie handles, such as dream chasing and fulfilling, real true love, and the reality that is “showbiz”, are themes that our society nowadays needs to see and understand. Most of the cases, people don’t do their passions for living, and the film serves as a motivation to do so. Just as Chazelle’s previous film “Whiplash”, the film also states that it is only through the commitment and dedication we put to our dreams, that they will come true. At a point in the film, Mia fears that the dream of becoming an actress is nothing else that a pipe dream, a mere fantasy, which then Seb fully denies. Darn right! Because there are two kinds of “Impossible Dreams” in life. There is the “Fantastical Dreams”, dreams that you never put any effort or interest in them, and as such, those dreams are actually impossible, and the “Ambitious Dreams”, which may seem as a very intricate and challenging goal, but you make the choice of achieving it via hard work, effort, commitment and dedication, and if you constantly do so, those dreams WILL come true.
Most of the cases, a married couple don’t really love each other, which culminates in disgrace or tragedy, or even worse, a couple that doesn’t know what love is “desperately love” each other. This film is a lesson about true love and what it means. For example, when Mia and Seb first meet, they don’t lust for each other immediately, when they first meet, they even insult each other! There is no such thing as “Love at first sight”, I mean, it could be that you’re physically attracted to someone, but you don’t love him or her yet, you know nothing about them, it is until you truly know them and enjoy their company that you can be completely sure if you love them or not. Once you’re sure you love someone, you must be aware that true love is not easy. The film itself literally describes true love when Seb describes Jazz to Mia. “It’s beautiful, but it’s also conflict, and it’s compromise, and it’s very, very exciting”. That description fully applies to love, and also, Seb’s following quote: “And it’s dying”, and sadly, it is true. True love is dying, and it’s up to us if we decide to stick with the unfortunate recent iteration of “love”, or make the choice of looking for an actual true love until you find it.
Very few films that I’ve seen in my life are so blissful and flamboyant, and that have a perfect balance of a dramatic element and an epic element. The dramatic element is of course the love story and the path each one of them has to fulfill their dream, and the epic element is… Do I really have to say it again? The musical numbers are poignantly directed, astonishingly acted, incredibly shot, very well choreographed, they’re amazing, exciting, ASTOUNDING! I loved the musical numbers! Though they’re not my favourite part of the film. It’s the characters. They’re not one-dimensional narcissists, as many people think. They’re compelling, lovable and struggling human beings who have a delicate self-esteem and care for others. I loved Seb’s charisma, his eccentricism and his self-motivation, and the motivation he represents to Mia. I loved Mia’s sincere struggling, her determination, and the fact that she’s not all-powerful, the fact that she’s just a human being with big aspirations in life.
So, what’s not to love in a film where love and dreams are the subject matter, the acting is top notch, the directing is truly exceptional, and it’s all-around a truly original film that excels at every field in filmmaking?
“La La Land” has a score of 93 on Metacritic, and an index of approval of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. But it doesn’t stop there. Independent critics such as Chris Stuckmann and Jeremy Jahns gave the film some of their highest grades, including myself. As I already mentioned, by January, 2017, it had already won 7 out of 7 Golden Globes and spawned 14 Oscar Nominations. That sounded like a clear lock for it to win. But like everything that’s overblown with fame and glory, that backfired.
Negative reviews were flourishing from people who were sick of the “La La Land” mania. People started to hate it, and not just hate it, but completely despise it. The worst part of this is that some of those people, I’m not saying all of them, hate it without having even seen it, and some who have seen it hate it without any strong reasons or arguments.
Even my own dad who loved the film drew the conclusion that Damien Chazelle was making an Oscar bait intentionally, but he clearly didn’t investigate deeply into the subject, or at least, that’s what I think.
Damien Chazelle is nothing more than a young, up and coming filmmaker who has barely made 3 films, he didn’t make an Oscar bait on purpose, all of his films to date have been Music based, because the man loves music, “La La Land” is a musical based in Hollywood, because Chazelle was transmitting his love for music and film, and not just that, he constantly taught lessons about true love and the reality behind “showbiz” (“That’s Hollywood, they worship everything and value nothing”). His objective clearly wasn’t winning an Oscar. His goal was to make a good film of something he loves.
However, the negative reviews and the backlash didn’t stop there, sadly. People were calling Justin Hurwitz and his lyricists team “Talentless discount versions of the Sherman Brothers”, they were calling Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling “Awful singing, overacting narcissists”; in short, they bashed on the film just because they were enough of the mania the film unintentionally created.
And so, let’s pass on to the subject of the Oscar night. I wasn’t a big fan of the “flub” of the Best Picture Mix-Up, but I’m not discussing that in here. I’m discussing all the wins it could have made but it didn’t. But why? Simple, during voting process, “campaigns” were built in order to make “La La Land” lose most of its nominations, they made it lose in categories like Film Editing, Costume Design, Sound Mixing, Original Screenplay, and most importantly of all: Best Picture.
Skipping over through the “mistake” of announcing “La La Land” as Best Picture, there is an actual reason for it losing the award. If “Moonlight” (The actual winner) or any other film had won cleanly, people wouldn’t have talked about the Mix-Up, but instead about why “La La Land” lost. It lost all because of the backlash it unintentionally and unfortunately created overtime. And that’s not all. Even after the ceremony, people still pretended to “like” “Moonlight” just because they subtly hate “La La Land”.
See also:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o-aEUulEDQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C39YJymGp3Q
I, personally, have mixed thoughts on “Moonlight”, but this review isn’t here to attack “Moonlight”, it’s about defending “La La Land”, and I’m not going anywhere on defending by attacking another film that’s not worth it. When I’m attacking, I’m attacking. When I’m defending, I’m defending. And right, now, I’m defending.
I know, I know; This, as any review is a personal, individual, valid, and most importantly, non-absolute opinion. If you didn’t like “La La Land”, that’s fine, but you must say and explain your opinions for your opinion to be valid.
I personally think I’ve given enough points on why “La La Land” is a film we all need to watch, not that we all need to like it, much less love it as I did, but it’s one that everyone must see and reflect very deeply about its subjects and messages.
A review in certain way serves to add or remove some of the hype generated by expectation, no review will tell you what’s right or wrong, but they can serve as help for others in the case that they need further explanation to get the big picture.
“La La Land” is a musical, I can understand much people not liking musicals, but this is a movie more than it is a musical, and it deserves to be judged as a movie, the musical bits included. You shouldn’t hate “La La Land” just because it’s a musical. You shouldn’t hate “La La Land” without having even watched it. You shouldn’t hate “La La Land” just because it’s grown so much and created this unstoppable flame and flare, in that case, if you didn’t like it, fine, just, don’t judge it for that aspect. And last, but not least, and probably most importantly of all, whether you liked it or not, you MUSTN’T make up false conclusions and much less flat out LIE to people in order to mislead them.
My recommendation is, watch the film. Do like it or do not, there is no judging without even seen it or without any concrete arguments. Every opinion is valid, if and only if you know what you’re talking about.
