Seb (Ryan Gosling) and Mia (Emma Stone) hold hands during the dreamlike ending sequence (La La Land, Chazelle, 2016)
by Megan Hess
In 2014, Damien Chazelle dazzled the world with his debut feature, Whiplash, the story of a young jazz drummer and his power struggle with a sadistic band director. This year, he treated audiences to his sophomore film, La La Land (Chazelle, 2016) – a movie as different from Whiplash as one can possibly imagine. Besides a difference in tone, their only common elements are music, J.K. Simmons (who has a significantly smaller role this time around – a delightful cameo as Seb’s (Ryan Gosling) one-night boss), and the theme.
If there is one thing Chazelle is trying to say in the movies that he has made so far, it is that art is hard work, and creative successes do not just happen by coincidence. I believe this is one reason why the artistic community has embraced his films with such a vigor. Whiplash and La La Land both orbit around characters whose upward creative prowess is blocked by barriers. For Andrew (Miles Teller), the Whiplash protagonist, it is Fletcher’s (J.K. Simmons) aggressive coaching, which quickly turns into emotional and verbal abuse. Conversely, in La La Land, Mia (Emma Stone) and Seb (Ryan Gosling) cannot blame their failures on a specific person. Mia desires a full-time acting career, but never gets any further than callbacks, and so must continue working as a barista on a Hollywood lot instead of performing in the movies filmed there. Seb wants to open his own jazz club, but has to settle for artistically unfulfilling piano gigs to make money. Fortunately, La La Land only dips its toes into their misery instead of wallowing in it, kicking off with the high-powered technicolor opening number “Another Day of Sun” before heading off the freeway (where the song takes place, with cast members dancing on top of cars) and into the real world.
In 2014, Damien Chazelle dazzled the world with his debut feature, Whiplash, the story of a young jazz drummer and his power struggle with a sadistic band director. This year, he treated audiences to his sophomore film, La La Land (Chazelle, 2016) – a movie as different from Whiplash as one can possibly imagine. Besides a difference in tone, their only common elements are music, J.K. Simmons (who has a significantly smaller role this time around – a delightful cameo as Seb’s (Ryan Gosling) one-night boss), and the theme.
If there is one thing Chazelle is trying to say in the movies that he has made so far, it is that art is hard work, and creative successes do not just happen by coincidence. I believe this is one reason why the artistic community has embraced his films with such a vigor. Whiplash and La La Land both orbit around characters whose upward creative prowess is blocked by barriers. For Andrew (Miles Teller), the Whiplash protagonist, it is Fletcher’s (J.K. Simmons) aggressive coaching, which quickly turns into emotional and verbal abuse. Conversely, in La La Land, Mia (Emma Stone) and Seb (Ryan Gosling) cannot blame their failures on a specific person. Mia desires a full-time acting career, but never gets any further than callbacks, and so must continue working as a barista on a Hollywood lot instead of performing in the movies filmed there. Seb wants to open his own jazz club, but has to settle for artistically unfulfilling piano gigs to make money. Fortunately, La La Land only dips its toes into their misery instead of wallowing in it, kicking off with the high-powered technicolor opening number “Another Day of Sun” before heading off the freeway (where the song takes place, with cast members dancing on top of cars) and into the real world.
Off to a party, Mia and her roommates hope "someone in the crowd" will help them out of obscurity and into stardom (La La Land, Chazelle, 2016)
Mia and Sebastian have an extended “meet cute,” and go from loathing to love in only a few scenes. Gosling and Stone’s chemistry carries the movie. I cannot imagine two actors more perfectly suited to the roles they play. The characters themselves – “persistent ingenue” and “passionately stubborn artist” are not anything new, but Stone and Gosling imbue them with a freshness. Furthermore, the archetypal nature of their roles is part of the charm. For a film that pitches itself as a musical, however, it does not have nearly enough singing. “Another Day of Sun,” “Someone in the Crowd” and “A Lovely Night” promise an experience that the film does not deliver to the end. Although it starts out strongly musical, it swaps out show tunes for jazzy instrumentals. While the soundtrack is strong, with several Academy Award nominations, it does not feel quite strong enough. If only they had picked either show tunes in the traditional style or instrumental music – not both – or at least made it more even. Deciding on a classic musical score may have meant losing Stone and Gosling, however; while they are both fine vocalists, they could never carry an entire musical between the two of them. La La Land is one of the only films actually well-suited for a Broadway adaptation; perhaps it will happen someday. For any perceived weaknesses in the soundtrack, the other elements compensate for it, working together to create the current mood of each scene while also upholding the film’s overarching positive vibe and reinforcing its message: even when things do not work out as expected, know things will be all right in the end.
La La Land is the movie from 2016 that everyone should see, simply because everyone can see it. It’s artistic without being inaccessible. If nothing else, it establishes Damien Chazelle as a lasting presence in film. His first two features are promising; we will have to see what comes in the future.
La La Land is the movie from 2016 that everyone should see, simply because everyone can see it. It’s artistic without being inaccessible. If nothing else, it establishes Damien Chazelle as a lasting presence in film. His first two features are promising; we will have to see what comes in the future.
