La La Land could not be more hyped right now. Between a more than modest return from the box-office and an inundation of Oscar nominations (fourteen by last count) things for the modern day musical could not be looking more positive. The Retiree’s resident film critic, Sebastian Briguglio gives us the full swing on the musical film.
The story is framed as your standard boy meets girl romance with a refreshingly modern yet nostalgic twist. Mia (Emma Stone) skilfully portrays your tragic Hollywood starlet on her quest to make a name for herself. She is situated in a quaint apartment living alongside three other women, all craving their big break into acting. While Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) is a struggling jazz pianist who lives with his sister – he dreams one day of opening his own jazz club as a way of cementing the legacy of his craft in a way entirely under his own control. The two serendipitously cross paths numerous times only to tease the audience of what could be, all the while their careers move trepidatiously in and out of the forefront of their lives.
Both performances are exactly what we have come to expect of our leads. Stone plays Mia as what is now an almost obligatory mix of mischievous and desperate, a style we’ve seen from her in “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” and “The Help”. While Gosling comes across as your classic sincere romantic lead, all while avoiding slipping into any of the cliche ridden pitfalls that normally accompany such roles. Credit to this of course needs to also be handed to director Damien Chazelle, whom has had an absolutely stellar few years coming off “Whiplash” and writing “10 Cloverfield Lane” – La La Land continues to show off how whether behind the camera or the typewriter this is a man to keep your eyes on.
While lacking a standout piece, the music uses as more subtle approach than most of it’s genre. Rather than using songs as a simple way to transition scenes or trigger events, it uses it’s songs to properly bolster active threads of the stories. Gone are the days of musicals like Mamma Mia where one simply has to say the word ‘queen’ to suddenly trigger a full blown set-piece – this film strives to earn every single song. This plays out to be one of the films greatest strengths as while it is a musical, it rarely leans on that crutch to force an emotional reaction from you. This is done through the hard work of the leads – the songs simply play out as icing on top.
Despite all this, there is one point, which at the least needs to be understood. This film, while heavily dipping its feet into the romance bucket, is by no means a romantic film. The story from start to finish is about the quest for success within the arts and the sacrifices that are required to get there – romance is simply another one form of currency readied up for exchange in order to attain a chance for greatness – and the only way for the film to sell us on that is to first make us truly believe that love was there in the first place.
All in all, this film won’t transform you into a fan of musicals, and it won’t sway a less intimate into the world of romance, but as in point in between it will definitely appease either side.
The songs are enough to push even the stone hearted of us through it, and for those without a beat in their step, the quick-witted banter between Stone and Gosling is sure to bring you a smile.
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