La La Land

Film (2016)

With Emma Stone (Mia), Ryan Gosling (Sebastian)

Mia (Emma Stone) is a barista who goes to endless auditions for roles without much success, and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) is an impoverished jazz pianist. They meet, they engage, and they do their best to inspire one another while trying to nurture their relationship.

They also do a lot of terrific dancing and singing. Who knew that Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone could trip the light fantastic? And they are fantastic! They move beautifully, and though they’re not exactly doing Fred Astaire and Ginger Roger moves, they do what they do with incredible grace and panache.

This whole film is such an offbeat delight that one is surprised at every turn by the inventiveness of the choreography and the lyrics. Songs emerge out of nowhere but seem entirely appropriate and fun. There is nothing at all Broadway about these lyrics – they’re not meant to be particularly witty – but somehow they work terrifically as down-to-earth, vernacular descriptions of what is going on.

Gosling and Stone also work well together dramatically. They’re both terrific actors and know how to convey nuance and subtlety in a way that additionally creates a great romantic dance between them.

The only criticism I’d have of the film is that at the dramatic climax the writing gets quite a bit thinner than elsewhere. Consequently, one doesn’t quite believe that things have to go the way they do. That shortcoming is somehow recouped in the ingeniously written epilogue. Even so, one might have hoped for more compelling narrative in the main dramatic turn.

Nonetheless, this is a terrific piece of filmmaking. It’s weirdly inventive in the way that Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist (2011) was a few years back.

One has no expectation for these two non-musical actors to be doing song and dance but it’s wonderful to see them break into it. Their singing is clearly not professional – we’re not talking Streisand or even Fred Astaire here – but they do a fine job. There’s even a scene in which, while singing in harmony they go a little off, but they acknowledge it with their acting and it works just fine.

Director Chazelle has really pulled out the stops here and improvised all sorts of fun stuff. The film opens with an LA traffic jam in which a whole song and dance routine – by the stalled drivers – takes place. That is followed throughout with equally unexpected moments, many of which are between the Gosling and Stone characters, but also plenty of miscellaneous group and choral numbers. There is also lots of great jazz along the way.

The film does a nice job of revealing some of the interests and oddities of the music and acting business. While depicting what fantasies surround these endeavors, it also frames the poignancy of aspiration in a particularly nice way.

The immensely talented director, Damien Chazelle, previously directed the cathartic, difficult and upsetting, though very well done, film Whiplash (2014), about a tyrannical jazz drum teacher and a driven student.

La La Land is also very well directed but much lighter: very entertaining, lots of fun, with great dancing, singing and acting. Despite a couple of weak points, its script is generally very good, supports the musical fun, and is itself at points inventive on its own terms.

– BADMan