Critics and audiences either love or hate ‘La La Land’. The reasons people love ‘La La Land’ is how the film is an escape from reality which opposes the common Oscar film which is grounded in reality and is depressing. This is done by it being seen as a “visual poem” and a “love letter to Los Angeles”. It is also seen as a really good emotional film where the efforts are seen as charming. The fantasy element of the film being like a dream allows for the emotional ending. People also like the call backs to the classical musicals of the 50s. People also like how the film is split into two halves with the first half being sweet whilst the second half becoming more real, with the chemistry between the two makes it seem like they are in love. The score is also seen a vibrant and repeatable. It is also beautiful and the dancing of the film is down to earth that it doesn’t seem jarring when they enter a dance sequence. The chemistry of the stars also brought people into the spell of La La Land. The actors were compelling and allowed people to see them as lovers, not two actors acting, and want them to stay together. A big point of debate is the ending, with some people love the way it subverts your expectations whilst others don’t and thinks it comes out of nowhere. Those who liked it thought it was refreshing to see people not end up together and it be ok, but others were confused by the final montage of what life would be like together, made it seem that they did want to be together so it made no sense and just added confusion to the story. La La Land is looking at LA in a fantasy way through the eyes of the film camera. The point of the film is that it is combining the old and new.
However, people didn’t like it for other reasons. It isn’t a conventional musical. With people expecting a recreation of the old 50s musical, they were disappointed. As the film has the idea of the characters being real people, the actors can’t sing or dance well, which people didn’t like. With the rise in the popularity of Broadway shows into the mainstream media, ‘Hamilton’, ‘Dear Evan Hansen’, and them pushing out these new fresh-sounding musicals, ‘Come From Away’, ‘Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812’, is innovating theatre, but La La Land is pushing back the development with old time musicals and generic romance plots. It simply doesn’t understand the musical genre which expects stars to belt out the songs, which in La La Land, doesn’t happen, leaving lovers of musical theatre and the classic 50s musicals disappointed. People have issues with the story of itself and the themes it represents. The musical presents Seb going on tour and changing the way Jazz is played as him selling out whilst Mia getting picked up by a studio is not. This is similar to the musical ‘Rent’ where selling out and getting money is apparently bad in the eyes of the creative minds, even though it can lead to greater things.
New Yorker Article
‘La La Land’ is one of the few original films released by Hollywood in the modern age of American cinema. As it is not an adaptation of a Broadway show, which most musicals were prior to 2016, which has now changed with the release of films like ‘The Greatest Showman’ and ‘A Star is Born’, despite it being a remake, or a jukebox musical like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, the film is an original film. However, it also feels like it isn’t an original film because of the use of 50s nostalgia to act like a 50s musical.
Mia and Sebastian are characters in the film who follow the typical American dream. They don’t spend their days in other full time jobs that give them money. Sebastian works as pianist for a restaurant and other jobs whilst Mia is a barista constantly going on auditions. This idea of the American dream where anyone can become who they want to be if they put their mind to it has become obsolete due to the increase of workers in the field, which has led to less people getting their dream job. This shows how the two characters of Mia and Sebastian seem strange to be following their dreams, which explains the tagline of the film; “Here’s to the fools who dream”.
Within La La Land, we see a peculiarity in Chazelle’s approach to nostalgia within the film. From a nod to the eighties in the retro band Sebastian briefly joins, to the old Rialto theatre in which they see a screening of ‘Rebel Without A Cause’; we see a drift towards nostalgia yet with a different tone. Typically, nostalgia is represented as weak, often quite mopey. Chazelle turns this typical trope on its heads and works nostalgia as “gutsy and purposeful, rather than moony and limp”. Primarily, we see this through the character of Sebastian, often through the mise en scene of his outfits, his car and the location. In contrasting the typical trope of nostalgia, we are able to see nostalgia beautified in a positive way- rather than sadly.
Undeniably, the cinematography is beautiful. Curated by Linus Sandgren, and through shooting on technicolor film, the cinematography easily becomes a standout masterpiece of the film. The beauty in colour runs throughout yet key examples would be the scene in which we see Mia and her roommates “sashay down the streets”, the colour of their dresses bursting on the screen. As a spectator, you are left in awe of what you see and become more drawn into the world of La La Land. It also adds a sense of magical realism which is heavily enticing to a spectator.
The dancing of the film is done smoothly, with the characters slipping into dance moments without it being odd. This is shown in the opening number where the choreographer was told to have it start of not dancing and slowly transition into a dance number. This can be seen as odd as a convention of the musical genre is usually to have big dance numbers that come from nowhere, and may be criticised by some people who were expecting random jumps into dance numbers like the old 50 musicals. This chilled back idea is shown in the singing as well as neither of the actors, Stone and Gosling, are strong singers and hence why their voices don’t make a big impact. This is to show how they are just real people singing who wish to have their dreams. In Stone’s solo, the husky catch to her voice shows the measure of her desires
The second half of ‘La La Land’ has been criticised for not being as good as the first half. This is because of the film’s abundance of set up and little pay off. This is shown in the five years later epilogue which is climactic but yet indecisive. The reimagined version of Mia’s life where she sees how it would have been if she stayed with Sebastian is confusing and only creates questions and not give answers. This could reflect reality which the film bases itself on but due to the musical genre and the romantic genre playing a big part of the film’s plot, it makes the audience feel annoyed at the ending rather than satisfied
Tying into both the use of technicolor film and nostalgic aesthetics of the film is the positive yet questionable image of Los Angeles in La La Land. The opening enables the spectator to be set up for the rest of the film. From this, we gather how song will be a frequent means of expression, are introduced to Mia & Sebastian and see the old-fashioned view of L.A, being a city of hope, revived. We see L.A as a magical city of dream-chasing, which is wonderful. However, it is so clearly an unrealistic interpretation of L.A. There is never rain, never bad weather, so much so that Mia walks home at Christmas “clad as if for June”.
At the end of the article, Lane puts a heavy emphasis on the point of seeing La La Land in the cinema- specifically encouraging the younger generation to do so. One reason for this may be to experience a musical film on a large screen, where you can take in every detail & colour & movement. Through a smaller screen, the film’s beauty may still be powerful yet you are unable to capture the full experience of the film. The emphasis on younger people participating in this may be because we missed out on the old Hollywood technicolor musicals being played on the big screen.
Film Studies 