La La Land (2016) Review: A Lesson in Nuanced Genre
I knew I was going to like La La Land from the first number. After the weight of Manchester by the Sea and Loving, I was ready for a true toe-tapping, big-grinning, feel-good movie going experience. And number after number delivered. Then why did I whisper “WTF?” to my husband at least 3x in the last 10 minutes of the movie?
Damien Chazelle is the answer, and he can go right ahead and shove it for being this brilliant at 32 years old (which means, yeah, he was not yet 30 during production of Whiplash) and making the rest of us 33+ year-olds feel like ultimate failures. @Damien Chazelle, how do you understand people like you do? Then, how do you make us get it? And through a musical!
If you’re not having fun in the first 10 seconds of La La Land you’re either taking yourself too seriously or forgot what it means to let go. We get a full story, told on a beautiful stage, by two of the hottest in Hollywood (and, apparently, narrowly dodged a Miles Teller bullet). Chemistry feels like too clinical a word to describe what Gosling and Stone bring to the big screen, as I don’t think you can cook up their spark in a lab somewhere. I love them both and want to see them together all the time.
If there was a distraction for me during the film, it was the singing added in post (as opposed to recording it live while the actor performs in-camera). No matter how perfectly it’s done, it’s never gonna be perfect and it wasn’t perfect here. Once I let it go, I was engrossed, but it took me like 30 seconds into “Another Day of Sun” and then another 30 seconds into “Someone in the Crowd” to be OK with it. I had a renewed appreciation for the great lengths to which Les Mis (2012) went, though I can also appreciate some of the impracticalities that this method presents when shooting on an L.A. freeway. Forgiveness granted.
[spoilers ahead]
Now that ending. The aforementioned “WTFs” felt justified and, in a way, still do, but in a good way. But I blame myself for thinking so little of Chazelle to simply promenade us into the type of happily-ever-after that we would expect from every Hugh Grant movie. To say I let my guard down is an understatement. There was no room in my mind for Mia and Sebastian to not end up together. I was so sure of the genre (rom-com + music + depth), that the happily ever after (together) was a foregone conclusion. But thank you, Mr. Chazelle, for challenging me with nuanced questions about goals, sacrifice, timing, happiness, and the chronology of our stories. Mia and Sebastian proved integral to each other’s stories — what can be more beautiful than two souls coming into contact with each other and being better because of it?
Mr. Chazelle, may you remain healthy for another 50 years and continue to dazzle us with your profound understanding of our species and the grace with which you explain it to us, through countless more films. And have so much fun on the awards circuit, you’ve earned it.
9.5/10 for its direction, performances, creativity, boldness, rewatchability and general pleasure-giving. Run, don’t walk. Oh and man was I super-pumped when “Audition” got a Best Original Song Oscar nom last week. Hadn’t heard a lot of buzz about that. So well deserved.
