I hate it when the critics are right. I don’t mind pre-release hype, but there’s a difference between, “I loved this film” and “nominated for ____ Golden Globes!” My greatest pet peeve is a film that gets major award attention long before the public gets it. I secretly root against all these films from Gangs of New York to American Hustle, from Atonement to Million Dollar Baby – you don’t get to dictate how I feel about a film before I’ve had a chance to see it. To me, it’s like giving the Vince Lombardi trophy to the New England Patriots after week 2 and saying, “Prove me wrong, people.” No, it’s not a perfect analogy, but I don’t care. The Golden Globes –and sometimes the Oscars- screw with the way I watch and think about movies, which is as sacred to me as anything in my life.
So, naturally I detested every second of multiple Golden Globe nominee award-winner La La Land, right? Well … actually, it’s the only film of 2016 that I cannot wait to see again. *Sigh* I like to think I’m above my pettiness. I’m not, but I still loved La La Land.
Next time I’m stuck in a traffic jam, I think I’m gonna create a song & dance flash mob. That’s the opening scene, extremely in tune with the bumper-to-bumper milieu so common in greater Los Angeles. It ends with anchored Mia (Emma Stone) giving the impatient Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) the finger. Romance has to start somewhere, don’t it? Actually, it misses the second opportunity as well when piano man Sebastian turns Christmas Eve classics into improve night at the Copa – and is subsequently fired. Mia, studio lot coffee barista and a self-proclaimed jazz detractor, is drawn to the music, and yet Meet Cute II dies before it starts. Third time is the
charm, right?
The next meeting is actually cruel – the work-starved jazz pianist is stuck in an 80s cover band and Mia deliberately requests “I Ran.” The action is less getting one’s goat, than snatching Sebastian’s caprine metaphor, selling it on the open market, reacquiring it in a hostile takeover, sacrificing it and re-peddling the entrails to a wiccan group creating a voodoo doll of Sebastian himself. I wish my words were even half as hilarious as the reactions of Stone and Gosling in this scene.
Naturally, the two are made for one another, as demonstrated by the song “A Lovely Night,” a duet straight out of An American in Paris or Singin’ in the Rain where they both indulge musically about how they’re not into each other. Your words say no, but that coordinated “Dancing with the Stars” stuff says … maybe.
La La Land, as the “Teletubbies”-inspired title suggests, often delves into the fantastical, interrupting time, space, gravity, what have you, when the moment calls. A number at Griffith Observatory made me wonder if there were stand-ins, but truth is it hardly matters: Gosling and Stone could do absolutely nothing musically – no singing, dancing or piano playing, and they still might be my favorite movie couple of the year. The fact that I bought the soundtrack afterwards, well… just coincidence, really.
Everybody loves
a good subtle irony, right? How about driving up to Griffith Observatory to see the stars, and going indoors, because in El Lay, you’re better off with a roof overhead if you want to see the heavens.
So when is the last time you saw a good musical? When is the last time your face hurt from smiling too much while watching a film? When is the last time you actually hoped there would be more movie? “I can’t remember” is my answer to all three questions. Did I enjoy La La Land more because of its novelty factor? Because of its throw-back feel? I can’t honestly say. There’s no question this film will make film historians weep with nostalgic joy. Damien Chazelle (not to be confused with James Marsden’s Central Park exclamations in Enchanted) has created a 2016 masterpiece that would not necessarily be out-of-place in a 1958 theater. Does that make it better? I don’t know. Does it matter? Not one little bit.
♪City of cars
Are you stopped up just for me?
City of bars
Have a drink or maybe three
L.A.
I felt it from the first moment I spent in you
That your magic
Is better from a view♫
Rated PG-13, 128 Minutes
D: Damien Chazelle
W: Damien Chazelle
Genre: Classical memories
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Hopeless romantics
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Jazz foes
♪ Parody inspired by “City of Stars”
