La La Land (Dir: Damien Chazelle, 2016)
I am writing this almost a week after watching so apologise in advance for a review which is light on insight and heavy on vague observations (when are they ever anything but?).
This widely acclaimed homage to the golden age of Hollywood musicals was a first watch for me. It’s somewhat simple plot concerns the rollercoaster romantic and professional trials of aspiring actress Emma Stone and struggling jazz pianist Ryan Gosling. While proudly declaring its love of classic Hollywood, this often low-key film feels much closer in spirit to Jacques Demy’s French language classic The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) than any actual Hollywood musical.
Where La La Land most strongly recalls the Hollywood musical is in it’s lovely saturated colour palette which would befit a 1940’s MGM Technicolor extravaganza and in the staging of musical numbers, A Lovely Night in particular and in its climax, a clever ode to those extended modern ballet numbers popular in 1950’s musicals, most famously An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli, 1951). For me it also strongly recalled the finale of The Muppet Movie (James Frawley, 1979), but that might just be me!
The score is strong, notably the beautifully melancholic recurring theme City of Dreams. The dancing skills of Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone was rightly acclaimed. Neither are singers, their pleasant vocals recalls the non-singer casting of Jean Simmons and Marlon Brando in Guys and Dolls (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1955) and works fine in context.
For all its vintage Hollywood flourish, La La Land has a slightly melancholy almost anti-Hollywood musical narrative and feels less like a traditional musical than its more pop music oriented contemporary The Greatest Showman (Michael Gracey, 2017). Whether it will be as fondly remembered in 65 years time as the musicals of 65+ years ago to which it pays homage, I am not sure but I did enjoy it. It’s a good movie, nicely performed and beautifully made.
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