1/1/2017 - La La Land (2016) - 8/10

Magical, beautiful, melancholy. A winding story of love, art, and dreams that grows into a joyous bellowing dragon of amazement and sympathetic fantasy. A rare cinematic treat that allows a wonder and splendor to flutter about in the eyes of the audience as we all float about in a transcendental world of exquisite escapism.

The 1st scene made me put my guard up, diving right into the unrealistic and shticky genre bombast, but it grounded itself and then climbed up into the stratosphere with each passing scene. It drew me in, despite my disaffection for the genre, with skill and wonder. Wormed its way into my thoughts, ears and heart. I appreciated the expressionistic nature of the musical bits, weaving magical realism into certain set piece to separate them from tangible reality and placing the other songs in a diagetic story space. I need one or both to really get into the genre as a whole.

Chazelle certainly doesn’t re-invent the musical or cinematic wheel with this effort, but his skill in storytelling and the strong work done with both direction and script here earn him deserved plaudits. He utilized a glorious color palette and lighting scheme to conjure the old while infusing the enchantment of the new. Stone and Gosling were marvelous, delivering real empathetic feels while holding up their part during the multiple musical numbers (though I would say neither are terrific singers). They were a strong pair, but I think Stone shone a slight brighter. They felt archetypal, but real, and let the film bouncily stroll through the two.

One thing that popped in my head while watching this: this is the theater kids wet fever dream. The meta filming while filming of artistic dreamers’ fantasies striving for reality. Their shared love for dying/out of favor/unprofitable performance genres, but the purity of each wins out in the end. The sparkle fantasy mesmerizing despite the bitter bite of reality. It is the story of these outsiders fighting against the inevitable failure of dying dreams, all for an alchemy of showbiz that the plebes will never understand.

La La lassos a balloon heading for the heavens, and that bright & shiny globe brought me along for its sky ride. Pageantry and pleasure, in flesh and spirit.