#45: The La La Land Cinema Tickets

Why go to the cinema today? We can all stream the latest blockbusters at home now, right? Sit down on our own sofas in front of our own, private home-cinema set up. Simple.

Not so true, at least for me and my fellow students. A trip to the cinema is a treat, made more affordable by being students or having the wonderful thing that is Meerkat Movies, which meant I could go on a date for the grand total of £6.75 for the both of us.

That trip, last Monday evening, was to see La La Land. It’s a ‘romantic musical comedy-drama film’, and if you haven’t heard about it, then where have you been? You absolutely have to look it up.

I would whole-heartedly say that it’s worth seeing. If nothing else, it is one of the most aesthetically pleasing films I have seen recently. So many pretty dresses, beautifully choreographed and in-sync dancing, bright, contrasting colours, and exquisite twilight scenes. Combined with the music, which I am still humming now, it is beautiful. The story-line is even interesting, particularly the end, which — but I won’t spoil it, because you need to go see it.

It’s almost pastiche, but not quite. It’s imitating styles that it respects, savours, and wants to continue on into the 21st Century, using all of our modern day filming technology. It savours those movies and musicals of the 20th Century, as the Hollywood world is booming, yet shifts it into the present day as tender moments are comically interrupted by iPhones. These may be dreamers, but they are still somewhat in the real, present day world.

In one of the scenes, they go to an old cinema to watch a classic film. It’s part of that era which the characters themselves are savouring, of old red cinema seats, and a stage with a curtain on which the movie is projected, a place where the reel of the film has the potential to burn up.

I have a favourite cinema that fits into this sort of world, although I’m pretty sure they’re using a bit more modern, digital equipment. It’s one screen, with spacious chairs, and it’s simple but cosy. The coffee is good and affordable, and it’s easy to get to. This is the Regal Cinema, in my home county of Suffolk, and I miss it dearly when I am up in Durham.

I am, I admit, one of those who love vintage styles. And I just really, really don’t like 3D movies or iMAX movies or any of those things. I find them too overwhelming, too loud, and being a glasses-wearer, 3D glasses are just an irritating thing that I have to wear to even see the film, on top of my normal glasses, that it stops me from focussing on the film itself. So I go to the Regal, where I can watch 2D films in a cosy, friendly place, and not the chaos of Cineworld. I go to the small town, the old school, because it is what I love.

And this film is about what people love. About their love of jazz or the movies, their dreams of running their own jazz bar or acting in films or on stage. It is about savouring what they love, and what each other loves, and keeping it going for those who do appreciate it. Maybe it’s a film that has a lot of romance in it, an ‘excess of the heart’ as they say on Rotten Tomatoes, but it is one that is unashamedly so, which is why it is proving so popular. And it still has its little points of realism, of the modern day world and all its problems.

On that note, I am going to leave you with a few lines from my favourite song of the film, ‘The Fools Who Dream’:

Here’s to the ones who dream
Foolish as they may seem
Here’s to the hearts that ache
Here’s to the mess we make
[…]
Smiling through it
She said She’d do it,
Again.

It’s poignant, full of both hope and a touch of realism. It made me cry, the whole film made me cry, with all its multitude of emotions that make up life. Yet I would watch it, again.

Intrigued? Watch the trailer below: