Awarded with fourteen Oscar nominations, a feat only met by All About Eve and Titanic, La La Land directed by Damien Chazelle sounds like a cinematic masterpiece. After seeing it, I have to agree. There are few movies that have both touched on timeless themes, conflicts, and lightened my mood at the same time. Every element of the theme was infectious, and I can see how this feeling transferred into the nominations.
In the beginning, the plot seems somewhat basic, about a struggling musician and an actress living in Los Angeles, who coincidentally cross paths three times until they realize their new relationship. This felt almost too simple at first, but this simplicity shoots the watcher into, well, La La Land, traveling through the joys of the new couple, submersing us into the beautiful scenery, and viewers are taken along right next to Mia (Emma Stone) and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), and even as the end was sad for many, we understand through being within their world, why it had to be this way, but also the sadness Mia and Sebastian feel about it.
La La land was like sitting in the middle of a rainbow, with colors, textures, and sounds running all around the viewer. Even the opening scene on a highway was more colorful than most movies, with the costumes of each performer a part of ROY G BIV. Somehow we feel like we are in dreamland even if we are only looking at a freeway. My immediate reaction was that it looks like a Target commercial, this color, almost ad nauseum, showed that although Mia and Sebastian had real dreams that are achievable, they are fantastical. Behind hope, realism lurks, and it is not all dreams are meant to be meant. It poses the questions to the watcher: are we supposed to, or even possible, to achieve the fantastic? And if we do, what do we give up in the process? And is it worth it to leave some things behind to reach our goals?
As one of the only original movie musicals as of late, La La Land explores the future of movie musicals, and where the line of nostalgia and traditionalist lies. The movie references Movies like An American in Paris with the style of dance and collage-like ending, but even with these references, these are all forward looking, and they are contrasted with plenty of modern day touches. Cell phone buzzes and rings, the struggles and almost universal themes of millennials, Prius jokes,and a major character decision caused by a dead iPhone. Sebastian, a Jazz enthusiast with a dream to open his own Jazz club, is convinced to let go of his dreams, at least temporarily, by Keith (John Legend), telling him that it is unrealistic to try to relive the days of Jazz greats. If he wants to further Jazz, he can not hold on to the styles of the past.
We, audience, see this as sad because we understand why this is necessary for him
Financially (unemployed with a dream he cannot fund), but we also wish to see him live out his dreams. This theme is explored outside of just the plot also. After seeing this movie, my mother said that the flawed dancing and singing of Stone and Gosling took away from the quality for her, but for me, it made the story more human and charming. A movie as visually grand and with such a smooth plot, airy voices remind us that they are just human, and that we are not separate from the struggles that they face. But even with suggestions of progression, this movie does a great job of not answering any questions, but contributing to the answers. It does not say that movie musicals should be a certain way, or that we should keep certain elements of the classics, but proposes it’s idea of the future.
La La Land will not be loved by everyone, but it is hard to hate by its flawless quality of the acting, scenery, and writing. It is funny, sad, innovative, and as much as you are following Mia and Sebastian, you are following your own opinion about what dreams should mean, and what you are willing to sacrifice in pursuit to achieve them.. And this is all a pitch to future filmmakers about how a movie musical could be created. La La Land is has been rightfully awarded.
Image Courtesy of Curbed LA