La La Land

seen on 13 January 2017

This film is an affectionate tribute to the Hollywood musical film, directed by Damien Chazelle and starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, with music by Justin Hurwitz. It's filmed in Cinemascope with the bright primary colours associated with Technicolor, but also features complex tracking shots that would have been extremely difficult to compose in the glory days of backlot production. Nonetheless, reality is not the name of the game. The opening number is set in a freeway traffic jam, but the sky is inordinately bright and clear; not even in the distance is there a hint of smog.

The songs are, in fact, not particularly memorable, that is to say, not catchy in the way of the classics of the genre, though they do set the required tone - optimism, energy, romance, bittersweet recognition of lost opportunity. There are many visual references to older movies, from a swing around a lamppost (though not in the rain) to a drive up to a location used in Rebel Without a Cause, to say nothing of pointing out the window on the Warners lot used in a Paris scene from Casablanca.

The two main characters, Seb (a jazz enthusiast) and Mia (an aspiring actress) are on the fringes of the dreamworld of Hollywood, and their initial meetings are not propitious. But they are the main characters so of course a romance develops. It's affectionately understated, and even rather charming that their voices are not those of trained singers, and their dance-steps proficient but not mesmerising - a back-handed acknowledgement that the great song-and-dance routines were, after all, just too fantastical for the real world. On the other hand, the two leads are by no means inept, and Ryan Gosling learnt to play the piano pieces so that there was no need to cheat on the camera shots. In a similar way, within the story, Seb's obsessive perfectionism with regards to jazz gives way to the more mundane concern of making a living, which means he has to compromise in joining a band that re-brands jazz for a new (young) audience. As Mia's career takes off, their relationship is abandoned except in nostalgic fantasy; the conclusion is far more downbeat than one might expect, and all the better for it.

It's an enjoyable film which has garnered many nominations, and also Golden Globe awards already given; but it looks at Hollywood, and LA in general, very indulgently as indeed a musical on the subject should.