La La Land (2016)

Ah, we meet again.

I saw La La Land for the first time at Disney Springs on a December afternoon in the midst of Oscar hype. Expectations through the roof. Hopes high. I’d been following the film before it even premiered, reading about this brand new, exciting masterpiece by the one & only Damien Chazelle. I’d seen trailers, despite my general rule. And it let me down. It let me down hard.

The two leads can’t sing *or* dance. What on EARTH was that ending!? So pretentious! So full of itself. Oh my gosh, this isn’t even CLOSE to as good as Hell or High Water, which SHOULD win Best Picture & most definitely won’t … what drugs are everyone on? City of Stars. What a joke of a song!

Etc. So I began my crusade of bashing LLL all over the place, getting into heated arguments & wanting to punch a hole in the wall every time a critic said it was better than Whiplash. BETTER THAN WHIPLASH!? Please.

… and then, HBO releases it last week in the Featured section, so I give it a whirl. Second time’s the charm, yes? And lo and behold, it had me in tears. It had me in tears, and I knew what was coming, which is perhaps more impressive. I felt delight. Even admiration. Out of the context of Oscars and Damien and comparing it to the movies I loved so much last year — it suddenly worked.

I watched it again tonight to kick off my October Movie Project (a more inspiring name TBD), which is 31 days of Best Cinematography Academy Award winners. I also committed to writing on here every day, no matter how long or short, about the film and what I took away from it. AND, as if that weren’t challenging enough already, I am going to try to take a picture of my favorite shot in each film. This is an emphasis on visuals, after all, so it seems fitting to include my pick for the best snapshot.

La La Land, you wrecked me on this third go-round. You’ve proven that I can be converted from one extreme to the other, and I’m grateful. I relate to you more than I thought I did, and I love your bright, bold primary colors; the whooshing, twirling movement of the soaring camera; the electric jolts in the jazz numbers; and Mia keeping the rhythm in the background, reminding us what joy looks like while Sebastian plays its tune.