La La Land

Dir: Damien Chazelle

2016

*****

I sat down to watch Damien Chazelle's with certain trepidation, it's a hugely hyped film but I've heard negatives. I think to fully appreciate it you have to understand it, although at the same time, you really can just kick back and enjoy it. It is the ultimate love letter to theatrical and musical cinema, not necessarily just the bigger and better known studio productions of the 40s and 50s but everything that one associates with that golden era. The two leads are Mia (Emma Stone), a wannabe actress, and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) a jazz enthusiast and piano player who dreams of opening his own club. Both have the Hollywood dream while living the Hollywood reality. The way the pair meet is staggered, starting in a traffic jam following the film's big booming musical number. I had huge reservations at this point as I didn't feel the opening song and dance number really worked, it was jumpy, poorly cut and just that little bit amateur looking. I found it a little hard to focus on if I'm being honest but I did love the big film title that popped up in the style of the old 50s films. The second number which featured Mia and her friends getting ready for a party was straight out of On the Town, however, I don't think it worked in the slightest and I really didn't like it. I love the era but I felt the film should have been a little more Stanley Donen, with FunnyFace and Singin' in the Rain in mind. Thankfully this soon followed but it was a good half an hour before I felt the film was authentic and not just pretending to be something it wasn't. There is a point in the film whereby Sebastian is asked to play in a modern jazz band by and old friend (played by singer and the film's co-producer, John Legend). Sebastian is a jazz purest but his friend reminds him that jazz is about the future, about change, that old jazz is dying because it isn't engaging new audiences, get them interested and then educated, then they will discover the roots of jazz and it will become popular again. It's a small scene but it explains exactly what Chazelle is trying to achieve in the film. Chazelle is a music man (I now expect music to be a big part of all his future films and will be disappointed if it's not) and he has this amazing ability to explain many of life's most complicated aspects through the music he is most passionate about. Mia states in one scenes that people love other people's enthusiasm and it is absolutely true. I think I resisted somewhat but it wasn't before long that I realized resistance was futile, La La Land won me over big time. There are quite a few aspects I have issues with, there are some amazing scenes in it that I absolutely adore but there were moments that left me a little perplexed and if I could make changes I'd make many. However, chemistry is key and Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling had it in spades. The two actors more than make up for any of the film's misgivings. It's a chemistry that works, they've stared together before so Chazelle is no genius for putting them together but my word, they are sensational together. By the end of the film the film comes together quite nicely, incorporating and addressing a lot of things that happened early on in the film that had yet to be addressed. The conclusion won't please everybody but it certainly is in keeping with tradition of the style and the modern reworking of it. It's a tribute, a take on a classic format but it's also a brand new type of film and beautifully unique it is too. It makes you question which is the real La La Land, Chazelle could have easily just made a modern day musical in the same style and everyone would have loved it but what he has actually done is very clever, with lots of different layers to it, just like jazz and the film's he clearly has a passion for. It's a four star film really but I give it five because I love it, even with its flaws and maybe even because of them.