Directed and written by Damien Chazelle, who brought us (my 2014 favorite film) Whiplash, comes La La Land. It’s a musical extravaganza we haven’t seen since the days of Moulin Rouge. But Moulin Rouge was sexy, dark and often misunderstood by critics. La La Land is heartfelt and uplifting. Modern day ‘girl meets boy’ kind-of-stuff set against the backdrop of old Hollywood movie sets. Yet, it’s not meant to be a contemporary Singing in the Rain. Somehow, La La Land manages to be its own genre.
Emma Stone is Mia, a Barista at the coffee shop on the Warner Bros studio lot. She dreams of being a movie star. Ryan Gosling plays Sebastian, a down-on-his-luck jazz pianist, who lives like a hermit and can’t pay the bills. He dreams of owning his own jazz club.
The story opens with a larger-than-life musical number on a bridge of the 405 entry of the LA freeway. Mia and Seb meet in a traffic jam. It’s not good. Next Mia happens into a nightclub and hears Seb play. That second fateful meeting isn’t good either. But finally, three for three – or so we think – they meet at a splashy Hollywood pool party where Sebastian is playing keyboard in a lame Duran Duran knock-off band. Mia tells him to take risks…to get there…to get famous! And, to get out of those 80s clothes.
The two break into a flirty banter – Seb trying to outdo Mia and Mia always one-upping him. Their aggression is adorably taken out in a musical song and tap dance number that has them literally dancing with the stars.
Our hearts swell perhaps at the reminder of innocent love, of time gone by, and when the earning of an old-fashioned TV show (Sunday night’s World of Disney, or the annual Wizard of Oz) had us plopping down in front of our TV set, long before recording devices were available.
This is the only movie (in my career as the Screen Queen) that not only can you take the entire family, but where a little girl can dream a dream through the definition of the new Hollywood classic, as your grandparents dream a a dream of the Hollywood throwback to swing bands and Technicolor musicals.
They don’t make ‘em like this anymore, but thank God they did. This is an old-fashioned love story set in a contemporary age with stolen glances and hand holding –when fingers made their way across to someone’s kneecap at a matinee. And then there’s that first kiss and the dance at the Griffith Observatory reminiscent of Liesl in The Sound of Music and her song “Sixteen Going on Seventeen.”
On a deeper level the soul of the film story is about artists and the love-of-their-lives gone wrong because their creative egos stood in the way.
If you’re an dancer, singer, actress, writer, whose been in love with other artists, it’s about the one who got away because our foolish dreams and our egos for our craft came before all else. Artists long to have it all, do it all, be it all, but in the end, their artistry outweighs their romance. After all, the movies of our life don’t often turn into real life.
It’s being compared to the 1964 classic, The Umbrellas of Cherbourgh, and rightly so, (though it’s ironic, as that film was given to me as a Video in the year 2001. I’d always longed to have been old enough to see it on the big screen. So now I feel I have seen the closest thing.)
The original music by Justin Hurwitz and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul will garnish them a big musical score Oscar.
Emma Stone will be nominated for an Oscar just for her physical appearance on screen. Her penetrating blue eyes, that red hair, that alabaster skin, put her in the moment of any scene with Gosling. The world is only Seb’s and Mia’s. Gosling’s and Stone’s. And in a world where we’re polarized by inhumanity, social media and negativity – enough to kill our souls – La La Land will bring your soul and your spirit back to life. It’s a true musical because it’s a dream. And with John Legend at the helm of the music, it’s all good. No… it’s beyond great!
The film makes you want to sing its praises! Literally!