La La Land had all the workings of a cheesy, fun musical. I enjoyed some of the songs throughout the film, especially “City of Stars.” When I went to watch this film, I was not sure about what to expect. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone would be the last people I would cast for a musical. Therefore, in the beginning I did not expect much from them musically. However, I was pleasantly surprised that they sounded okay. The plot of this musical was the typical story of two struggling entertainers trying to make it in a world that does not really appreciate their craft. Eventually, they both succeed and become the top of their game. This however comes with a trade off. Throughout the movie Mia (Emma Stone) and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) were involved in a whirlwind romance however, they do not end up together in the end. Overall, this movie was good, not oscar nominating worthy but I guess with the lack of musicals these days it has to suffice.

I attended the Cornell Cinema screening of the well-known Oscar nominee, La La Land. This film was fantastic and followed the lives of two individuals, Mia (played by Emma Stone) and Sebastian (played by Ryan Gosling), who were trying to become a household name in show business. It examined the challenges these individuals faced in their personal and professional lives they faced together and separately. Though this film was fiction, it successfully portrayed many of the challenges normal, everyday individuals face in relationships and in their jobs, while trying to improve themselves. It did a great job of depicting real-life challenges, allow the audience the chance to connect with the on-screen personalities. Unfortunately, this film did not win the best picture Oscar, though Emma Stone, who played Mia, won best actress for this film. I feel that if you have not had a chance to view this wonderful film, that you definitely should watch it the first chance you get. Throughout the movie, it was interesting to see how the directors incorporated Stone and Gosling’s musical scenes, as they do not strike me as the type of actors that would play characters in a musical. Overall, they did a fantastic job.

Though I really enjoyed the plot and songs of La La Land, what fascinated me the most was the overall layered artistic composition of the whole film. At first glance, the movie seems to have a typical and digestible front. The story-line is simple: boy and girl meet and fall in love. The main characters are simple: girl wants to be an actress, boy wants to be a jazz musician. The color scheme was focused around the 3 primary colors: red, yellow, blue. The songs are fun and catchy, the scenery is bright and everything is really sweet and perfect like a typical rom-com musical would be.  However, this seemingly simple base is what allows for the director, the artist, to attract audiences to what looks like will be a fun and enticing dream-like experience, while setting the foundation to create something much more complex.

To start, the movie seems to be set in two worlds–one in which there is real life, and one which is a fantasy of real life. Being a musical, random cuts to perfectly choreographed song and dance all seem to happen in the dream-like part of the reality, when moments are happiest and seem so perfect and happy or exciting that they almost couldn’t be real (think: “pinch me I must be dreaming” kind of effect). In contrast, the parts of the movie in which conflict or less-amicable feelings arise are usually more quiet, almost no music in the background. In addition they happen more often through the “winter” and “fall” chapters of the film (identifiers which seem to represent emotional seasons, not just natural ones).

The music and the colors in the film all help to set different moods in less obvious ways that also seem to sway the audience in more subtle ways–kind of like experiencing a feeling in a dream, where you can’t necessarily pinpoint your feelings because you do not have total control over what might happen next. La La Land really does a great job of artistically composing the film to create a brilliant effect on the plot and the audiences.

It is rare to see musicals today; after all this movie was made in 2016 and not the 1950’s. But there is one thing music and musicals do to us: they cheer us up. I watched La La Land for the first time last Sunday.

The film’s backdrop is in LA, so maybe it is more appropriate to write the title as LA LA Land. I also checked the definition of “la la land”: “Los Angeles or Hollywood, especially with regard to the lifestyle and attitudes of those living there or associated with it.” I never knew that … I knew the gist of what the phrase means, as described by its second meaning: “a fanciful state or dreamworld.”

The movie opens with a traffic jam, which is a sure way to bring the worst out in people. But this is a musical, so folks end up breaking into dance and song. And there is a sense of a place where everything is magical and dreams come true. Of course no musical is complete without a girl meets boy storyline … we meet Mia and Sebastian. She is a struggling actress, and he is a musician who aspires to open a jazz club. Certainly his ambitions are more nostalgic since there are probably few people who aspire to be jazz artists these days. But it is that nostalgia for a romantic time of the musicals that is embodied here. And the chasing of your dreams. The ending (five years later in movie time) was interesting. Mia is a famous actress, married with a daughter. She stumbles into a Jazz club that Sebastian has opened (so he also got to his dream). And the two of them are left imagining how things may have gone if their relationship had worked out.

There is one interesting line from Sebastian that striked me as interesting, more describing our lives and a hopeful view of the human condition in general: “This is the dream, it’s conflict and it’s compromise but it’s exciting!”
It’s was great to see a musical film that is recently produced. And it is not a redo of a broadway show; there were original songs developed for it. The cinematography and choreography were amazing. For someone young like myself who hasn’t grown up watching musicals, it was a fun entertaining movie that cheered me up.

Last Sunday, I saw the film La La Land for the first time. Despite it being one of the most talked about movies so far this year, I managed to avoid all spoilers so I could take in and enjoy every moment of the movie experience. So, if you haven’t seen La La Land and plan to do so at some point, beware that there are major spoilers below!

Walking into the theatre, I wasn’t sure that I was going to like the movie. Perhaps because of the way that it was presented, I expected it to be a cliche, romanticised story about dreams coming true, finding true love, etc. Furthermore, there are some criticisms of the film for being problematic. For example, one reviewer deemed it to be “whitewashed nostalgia” which is of course an important issue that should be talked about in the movie industry.

However, as soon as the movie began, I forgot about the real world and was immediately absorbed into the charm of the opening sequence. The flawless acting, storytelling, and singing made for a great production. The film also surprised me in ways I did not expect. In particular, I loved the ending. I think most people expected a “perfect” ending between the two main characters but I prefer the true ending because it shows that we do not live in a fairy-tale world and things don’t always work the way you want. We always live with some regrets and “what if’s,” but that’s okay.

On some degree, I do think the movie was a little bit overrated. I think the idea that “Hollywood loves movies about Hollywood” applies here. I personally couldn’t relate so much to the film’s themes such as the struggles of being an artist, but I imagine it would resonate well with a certain audience. I didn’t find the movie to be life-changing or incredibly revolutionary like some of the other films nominated this past awards season, but nonetheless I do think La La Land is a great production with catchy songs that certainly knows how to entertain an audience for two hours.

There are certain types of movies that make you think and there are those that make the movie theater a place to escape the realities of today and allow you to daydream a little. La La Land belongs to the latter. It is not a film I am interested in having a conversation about, but rather the type I might watch on a Sunday afternoon to unwind from the chore of going about routine.

I have been taking a course on cinematography this semester, and I admit that I have a newfound appreciation for what it takes to achieve certain images (lighting design and camera movement) as the Director of Photography as well as how one’s role on set plays out with the dynamic between the entire cast and crew. The camera movement in La La Land achieves that state of dreaminess through swooping crane motions that add to the fluid transitions from one scene to another. From the opening scene, where a continuous take is interjected by dancing bodies and opening car doors to the pool party scene where the camera dives in with the actors, there is a constant sense of grandeur that renders characters always on a stage: life as a performance.

La La Land received so much acclaim because it revived a long history and tradition of American musicals on film. However, I find that it lacks the maturity and complexity of Damien Chazalle’s first film from two years ago, Whiplash. There is something funny in La La Land’s approach to diversity: the opening scene is the only one that includes people of color. It then narrows down to follow the whimsical struggles of two rising white LA artists whose dreams simultaneously bring them together and pull them apart. Overall, I found La La Land a poorly-performed musical (both the acting and the singing were lousy). The film is spectacle: it’s interested in itself and the constructed image. In that respect, it is very much like theater. It wants to be watched for the visuals and nothing more.