La
La Land
Damien
Chazelle who wrote and directed the brilliant 2015 Oscar nominated film
“Whiplash” and who also wrote the screenplay to this year’s smartly worded “10
Cloverfield Lane”, writes and directs one of the 2016 front runners for the Oscar Best
Picture in his highly imaginative and entertaining film “La La Land”.
Set
in contemporary time, the story of “La La land” revolves uniquely around two characters.
Mia (Emma Stone), an aspiring actress and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) a dedicated
jazz musician. Both are struggling to make ends meet while pursuing their passion
and dreams in a city known for destroying hopes and breaking hearts. With
modern day Los Angeles as the backdrop, this musical about everyday life
explores what is more important; a once in a lifetime love or a once in a
lifetime opportunity to be in the spotlight.
REVIEW: With
an airy lightness, cinematic warmth and mild grace in its execution “La La
Land” is an abundant joy to watch with its story of love and romance wrapped in
its own originality of music, dance and acting performances. Without a single
word of vulgarity uttered, it is a sweet and genuinely modern take on the
oldest conflict between people; to choose personal ambitions, desires and goals
or choose someone you love above all else – above anything. Does your love life
intersect or does it diverge”.
I
personally have a lot of 1940’s golden era of movies Don Quixote-ish affinity
for romantic stories like this in me, so I know with my comments here some potential
viewers will love it as much as I did and others of you will simply not. Why?
Because while 70% of the film does remains rooted structurally to straight acting
dialog and dramatic performances, the other approximate 30% of the film’s 2
hour 8 minute running time is rich and lush with impromptu romantic song and dance
routines and other scenes of fantasy and magic through a backdrop of a dusk
lite cityscape, moon lite clouds and couples in romantic embrace while floating
among starry twinkling skies. There is even the occasional ensemble dance
segments including one in the first 10 minutes of the film on an LA Expressway off
ramp during rush hour.
While
it took a few minutes for me to gage the flow and tenor of the films message and
pacing, over time “La La Land” slowly moved over me similar to the warmth of someone draping
a blanket over me as I slept on the couch with the warmth coming first over my
legs, then secondly to my waist and eventually to the blanket being tucked around my face;
a smile came naturally over me in the comfort and joy of what I was seeing.
Now,
not every musical note or dance step in this film is Fred Astaire and Ginger
Rodgers perfect (YOU SAY WHO? ………….BLASPHOMY……..
Go Google them up on YouTube you naïve youngster). But Gosling and Stone are
not trying to be perfect, they are trying to capture romantic magic in that moment
so you feel what they are feeling.
Also,
Director Damien Chazelle is becoming a great director as he makes this latest
effort with a backwards look to an old time period in Hollywood without it
really being backward-looking or unoriginal. He takes big risk in trying to
tell this simple story, but it pays off big time with vitality and love of
life. It’s a delightful celebration of simply being in love and romancing that person
with long glances, embracing smiles, holding hands in the dark and soft gentle
kisses. “La La Land” is an old school celebration of how people use to fall in
love and meant it when someone special came in their life.
You
should see this film in the theater, each frame of it is entertaining, exquisite
to look at cinematically, as well as unique looking with its lush lighting, set
colorful design and crisp tailored wardrobe. But that is not the only reason to
see it. You should also see it for a particular scene that takes place just place
about 5 minutes before the film’s actually ending. It’s about 7 minutes in
length and for the sake of not giving anything away I will just call it “romantic
reflections”. In my estimation it is one
of most emotionally moving visual passages (with music) I've ever seen either in
a musical or any film I have ever seen all year. If you have ever been in love or
in love now we all have done this before in those closely guarded private times
we only share with our selves.
I
have no doubt “La La Land” will garner
double digit Oscar nominations, including the Best Picture, Directing, Actress, Actor, Cinematography,
Lighting (this film is truly exquisite looking each frame), Original
Screenplay, Original Song, Musical Score, Film Editing, Sound Editing, Sound
Mixing, Production Design, Best Makeup and Wardrobe.
Throughout
the film there is a song with the lyrics…………….. “City of stars
Are you shining just for me?
City of star, there's so much that I can't see who knows? I felt it from the first
embrace I shared with you”. …………I guarantee if you see it you
will be humming the melody as you leave the theater.
“La
La Land” is simply everything wonderful about adult love and everything wonderful
about adult life.
4
Stars
No comments:
Post a Comment