La La Land
[Warning: spoilers ahead]
La La Land was not what I was expecting. It is a story about the desire to make it big in Hollywood. The plot is simple enough; an actress and a musician, both hoping to get their big breaks, repeatedly cross paths. At first they don't get along, but eventually (somewhat suddenly) they start a relationship. They slowly find more successful jobs, although they don't necessarily get what they want. Mia is doing what she wants, but barely getting by. Sebastian finds fame and success, but he is basically just a sell-out. One day their career paths take them in different directions. Jumping ahead several years, we see that Mia is now a very successful actress, and Sebastian owns the jazz club he always hoped to have. However, they are no longer together. And then, painfully, we are forced to watch them imagine what their lives would have been like if they'd never split up. The most upsetting part of this is that their lives are basically the same, except that they are happier because they're together. I got my hopes up at that point, thinking that maybe the life in which they were apart was an alternate ending. I was wrong. But that wasn't even the worst part of this movie for me.
The opening number was so promising. It is a beautiful, massive musical number on a California highway with dozens, maybe hundreds, of dancers that took two days to film. And it was so exciting! But Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling didn't even sing in that number. And maybe that was a good thing? I'm not saying that they're bad singers, but their voices were not strong enough to be leads in a musical. And speaking of musicals, the second half of the movie had so few musical numbers. The whole thing went downhill from the first number. Plus there was that whole magical realism thing with the couple dancing among the stars at the planetarium. Sure, it's probably a metaphor about their relationship, or the struggle for fame, or both...but it felt out of place with everything else.
I have to admit that I don't understand why this movie had so many nominations at the Oscars. It was good, and it was (by all accounts) a pretty accurate representation of what it's like to climb your way up the ladder of fame in Hollywood, but I don't think it was that good. The music was possibly the best part. I had "City of Stars" stuck in my heads for weeks! The problem is that there was not enough music. It's a musical!
La La Land was not what I was expecting. It is a story about the desire to make it big in Hollywood. The plot is simple enough; an actress and a musician, both hoping to get their big breaks, repeatedly cross paths. At first they don't get along, but eventually (somewhat suddenly) they start a relationship. They slowly find more successful jobs, although they don't necessarily get what they want. Mia is doing what she wants, but barely getting by. Sebastian finds fame and success, but he is basically just a sell-out. One day their career paths take them in different directions. Jumping ahead several years, we see that Mia is now a very successful actress, and Sebastian owns the jazz club he always hoped to have. However, they are no longer together. And then, painfully, we are forced to watch them imagine what their lives would have been like if they'd never split up. The most upsetting part of this is that their lives are basically the same, except that they are happier because they're together. I got my hopes up at that point, thinking that maybe the life in which they were apart was an alternate ending. I was wrong. But that wasn't even the worst part of this movie for me.
The opening number was so promising. It is a beautiful, massive musical number on a California highway with dozens, maybe hundreds, of dancers that took two days to film. And it was so exciting! But Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling didn't even sing in that number. And maybe that was a good thing? I'm not saying that they're bad singers, but their voices were not strong enough to be leads in a musical. And speaking of musicals, the second half of the movie had so few musical numbers. The whole thing went downhill from the first number. Plus there was that whole magical realism thing with the couple dancing among the stars at the planetarium. Sure, it's probably a metaphor about their relationship, or the struggle for fame, or both...but it felt out of place with everything else.
I have to admit that I don't understand why this movie had so many nominations at the Oscars. It was good, and it was (by all accounts) a pretty accurate representation of what it's like to climb your way up the ladder of fame in Hollywood, but I don't think it was that good. The music was possibly the best part. I had "City of Stars" stuck in my heads for weeks! The problem is that there was not enough music. It's a musical!
Comments
Post a Comment