La La Land Review | TIFF 2016

<p>When Damien Chazelle released <em>Whiplash <&sol;em>in 2014&comma; he introduced a film that was emotionally gripping&comma; tense&comma; and extremely entertaining&period; Focused on a jazz drummer&comma; the film was tightly edited feeling like it itself was a piece of jazz music &&num;8211&semi; enough room to have those powerful confrontations&comma; but still moving at a brisk pace&period; For his sophomore follow up&comma; Chazelle has placed his sights on classic Hollywood cinema&period; More specifically&comma; <em>La La Land <&sol;em>is a modern take on classic musicals&comma; but with just enough of <em>Whiplash<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s struggles to feel unique and make it one of the year&&num;8217&semi;s best films&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I should definitely state that I do not enjoy most movie musicals&period; I find them happy to a fault&comma; with some of them dwelling on the songs instead of moving anything forward&period; What could be done using the power of film is instead stretched and beaten to death with music&period; <em>La La Land <&sol;em>does not have this problem&period; It builds characters through songs and only uses them in the right moments&period; It wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t make sense to make a catchy song out of a depressing moment&comma; so Chazelle doesn&&num;8217&semi;t bother&period; But when there is a song being sung by anyone in the film&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s one that will remain in your head for days&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m a week out since I saw the film and I still sing &&num;8220&semi;City of Stars&&num;8221&semi; every now and then&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;113404" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-113404" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-113404 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;09&sol;21102824&sol;La-La-Land-Movie-Soundtrack-1024x680&period;jpg" alt&equals;"La La Land" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"664" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-113404" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>La La Land<&sol;em>&comma; Entertainment One&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s a testament to the songwriting&comma; but also to the script and performances&period; Chazelle moves at a fairly fast pace&comma; tending to dwell on the moments that build character versus plot points&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s all anchored around a central theme of following your dreams and what sacrifices you might have to make to accomplish them&period; That being said&comma; the film is undoubtedly a romance between the two stars of the film&comma; Sebastian &lpar;Ryan Gosling&rpar; and Mia &lpar;Emma Stone&rpar;&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s their dreams we are introduced to almost immediately&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s how they fit into each other&&num;8217&semi;s lives that makes <em>La La Land <&sol;em>a massive triumph thematically&period; Where Sebastian wants to open a jazz club dedicated to celebrating jazz music exclusively&comma; Mia wants to be an actress&period; The two play off each other and help bring the other to their dreams&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Star power &lpar;that is really a huge factor here&rpar;&comma; performances and chemistry all rest heavily on Gosling and Stone&&num;8217&semi;s shoulders&comma; but to us it seems like an effortless feat&period; The relationship between the two is palpable the moment they start intersecting in each other&&num;8217&semi;s lives&period; This is partially due to the two both being very charismatic leads that you could hang a film on individually and still end up with something to talk about&period; Mia is kind of a mess but it&&num;8217&semi;s only because she is moving 100 miles a minute&period; Meanwhile&comma; Sebastian seems to be moving radically slow while still being his own sort of mess&period; But the two performances feel magnetic because they bring an energy that fits the aesthetic and their characters&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;113405" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-113405" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-113405 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;09&sol;21102829&sol;la-la-land-ryan-gosling-emma-stone-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"La La Land" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"664" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-113405" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>La La Land<&sol;em>&comma; Entertainment One&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The most common staple of movie musicals is the constant happiness and struggles that seem slight&period; Chazelle doesn&&num;8217&semi;t ignore this trope&comma; even going so far as to open the film with a traffic-heavy Los Angeles freeway all dancing and saying how happy they are to be in the City of Angels&period; What is most effective in <em>La La Land <&sol;em>is how he takes a concept of living out your dreams and works against the tropes to create a somber ending filled with happiness but also just a tinge of sadness&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll probably feel elated by the end of the film&comma; but there&&num;8217&semi;s a layer underneath the joy that demands some inspection&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Undeniably though&comma; this is one of the best films of 2016 and only further cements Chazelle as the genius that he is&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m curious to see what happens when he breaks from music as a focal point of his films&period; His films carry a kinetic&comma; musical energy already that I would love to see applied to something that doesn&&num;8217&semi;t involve music&period; But for now&comma; he&&num;8217&semi;s making some of the best films of our generation&period; <em>La La Land <&sol;em>is a celebration of the movie musical and a place for joy in our films&comma; even if it means a bit of sorrow is needed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;