Best Pictures #33:
2016 (89th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee La La Land
La La Land is one
of best reviewed, most lauded, and most loved movies of 2016. It has already won
several awards and is very likely to win more. It received 14 Oscar
nominations, tying the record set by All About Eve (1950), though All About
Eve’s 14 nominations was done with fewer categories, which seems slightly
more impressive. La La Land is the front runner to take home the Best Picture Oscar. Let’s get
one thing straight: I like La La Land.
I might even really like it, but I did not love it, at least not the way
everyone else did.
The plot is simple enough: Struggling jazz pianist Sebastian
(Ryan Gosling) meets and falls for aspiring actress Mia (Emma Stone). Together
they sing and dance through some of the loveliest scenes of Los Angeles on
film. This is a side of L.A. not often seen movies. The center of American
filmmaking is most often the setting of action and crime movies or it is meant
to be a nonintrusive background. In La La
Land, Los Angeles is stylized and romanticized. It is a city of purple
sunsets, cool, blue nights, and hills and canyons and highways for song and
dance numbers. I would not say that Los Angeles is a character because sets
aren’t characters, but it is at the forefront of La La Land.
It’s no surprise that Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone have good
chemistry; this is their third movie together after all. Each does a fine job
in their respective roles. They sing and dance well enough, though they sing
and dance like nonprofessionals that have been taught specific, not too
challenging choreography. Each has a signature song: Sebastian has the
melancholy “City of Stars” and Mia’s “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)” serves as
the film’s climax. Both songs have been nominated for the Original Song Oscar.
La La Land takes
place in a daydream world and writer-director Damien Chazelle seeks to
transport the audience to this wonderful musical world. He succeeds, to a
point. La La Land is meant to be a
loving, enthusiastic tribute to the musicals of the 1950’s and 40’s. The
misstep it makes is this: instead of taking inspiration from the great musicals
of the past to create a new, fresh take, it simply lifts from and imitates
those films instead. Action and science fiction are the genres most often
criticized for being derivative, but musicals can be derivative too. There are
numerous visual references to other musicals (enough for a side by side video comparison). Some are indirect: the bold, bright color pallet of costumes and
sets is reminiscent of the musicals of Jacques Demy. Others are more direct: Gosling
jumps up on a lamppost just like Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain. Unfortunately, since I’ve already seen most of
the movies La La Land references (Jacques
Demy’s Umbrellas of Cherourg, Young Girls of Rochefort; Fred Astaire
musicals: Shall We Dance, The Band Wagon, Funny Face; and, most of all, Singin’
in the Rain, An American in Paris,
and every other Gene Kelly musical), subtly and not so subtly, it comes off
less as a tribute and more as a hollow imitation.
There’s a lot to like in La
La Land. It’s a nice story about aspiring performers falling in love and
trying to achieve their dreams. From the pink and purple sunsets to Stone’s bright, yellow dress, La La Land is filled with bold and vibrant
solid colors that cannot help but catch the eye. The songs are pleasant and
enjoyable, even if you don’t like jazz (and I don’t). Some of the musicals
numbers are very visually appealing—I’m thinking of Sebastian and Mia’s dance
at the observatory specifically—but others never open up to be as grand as I
was expecting. The opening number plays like generic tableau of what someone
that hasn’t seen a musical thinks a musical is like. I suppose I just can’t
help but be reminded of the classic musicals with undeniably better performers
and songs and wonder why I’m not just watching one of those again. I didn’t get
the feeling of unabashed joy and love and wonder that I get whenever I watch
Truffaut’s Day For Night, Gene
Kelly’s Singin’ in the Rain, or even
Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous (all
about performers in the entertainment business). But still, I enjoyed this
movie.
Nominees: Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz, Marc Platt, producers
Director: Damien Chazelle
Screenplay: Damien Chazelle
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend
Production Companies: Black Label Media, TIK Films Limited,
Impostor Pictures, Gilbert Films, Marc Platt Productions
Distributor: Summit Entertainment
Release Date: December 9th, 2016
Total Nominations: 14, including Best Picture
Other Nominations: Director-Damien Chazelle,
Screenplay-Damien Chazelle, Actor-Ryan Gosling, Actress-Emma Stone,
Cinematography-Linus Sandgren, Editing-Tom Cross, Costume Design-Mary Zophres,
Production Design- David Wasco, Sandy Reynolds-Wasco (set decoration), Sound
Editing- Ai Ling Lee, Mildred Iatrou, Sound Mixing- Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee,
Steven Morrow, Original Score-Justin Hurwitz, Original Song-Audition (The Fools
Who Dream): music by Justin Hurwitz, lyrics by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul,
Original Song-City of Stars: music by Justin Hurwitz, lyrics by Benj Pasek,
Justin Paul
The 2011 Austin Film Festival wrapped up on October 27 and after a week of watching films one stood out above the rest: The Artist.
The Artist is set in Hollywood in the late 1920s and early 1930s as silent films gave way to talkies and movie "stars" first took hold of the public's imagination. Jean Dujardin plays popular film star George Valentin, a combination of Douglas Fairbanks, John Gilbert, and Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly's character in Singin' in the Rain). If Valentin's name brings to mind Rudolph Valentino, that's not the only reference to classic movies you'll notice. A sharp eye will spy nods to many well-known films, from The Thin Man to Citizen Kane, as well as bits of true Hollywood history.
Singin' in the Rain is an obvious influence for The Artist as the two films share similar storylines about an actor who can't cope with the change to talking pictures. However, The Artist goes to a much darker place dramatically and contains a lot less singing. In Singin' Don Lockwood bounces back from the dumps after a night of moping over sandwiches and milk. Let's just say that after the failure of Valentin's last-ditch effort to maintain his stardom, he does not head for the milk. Nevertheless, this film closes with the best kind of Hollywood ending: an exultant musical number.
I knew that Dujardin was adept at comedy from his starring roles in the OSS 117 spy spoofs. He can make an entire theater laugh simply by breaking out in a big, cheesy, movie star smile. However, in The Artist he proves that he is capable of much more than campy charm. I was especially moved by a scene late in the film when his star has faded and he encounters a young actress he once helped who is now a leading lady. As he politely listens to her, conflicting emotions of happiness and pain subtly play upon his face, and your heart breaks for him.
Have I mentioned that The Artist is a silent film itself? It could have been a gimmick, but writer-director Michel Hazanavicius uses the lack of dialogue in a very smart way. He highlights physical comedy and visual gags, while the title cards are often punchlines themselves.
This is an excellent film that many people, not just classic film aficionados will enjoy; however, as a "silent" film with a foreign pedigree, it will probably only appeal to a niche market. If you are a film lover, urge your local theater to show The Artist - it is a wonderful big screen experience.
And classic film fans should also keep an eye out for Sal, directed by James Franco. This film follows the final day in the life of Sal Mineo, an actor that Franco and the film's star Val Lauren have long admired. Mineo was twice nominated for an Oscar, but never became a big star. At age 37, he was poised for a career resurgence with his first chance at directing a film, but his life was cut short by a random, senseless crime. Though it is not a documentary, much of the action and characters in Sal are based on real events and people in Mineo's life. It is a quiet and thoughtful portrait of an artist; consequently, Sal seems even less likely than The Artist of reaching theaters outside New York and L.A. However, I think the intimate style of this film will translate just as well on a small screen if you miss it in theaters.
