'La La Land' a stunning blend of romance, dreams and all that jazz
Prepare for amazement.
The breathless 5½-minute opening musical number in Damien Chazelle's “La La Land” is worth the price of admission all by itself.
This impossibly intricate blend of movement and music on a crowded L.A. freeway - seemingly captured in a single, fluid shot (I noticed only one editing cheat) - instantly announces we're in the hands of a visionary filmmaker who intends to knock our cinematic socks off, even more than he did in his award-winning 2014 drama “Whiplash.”
Chazelle's bold and brilliant “La La Land” marks a remastering of the great American movie musical, a collision of romance and dreams, joy and sadness, cliché and innovation, realism and fantasy.
Merge Sydney Pollack's vintage romance “The Way We Were” with classic MGM musicals from the 1930s and 1940s and you'd get only the premise of “La La Land.”
David Wasco's production designs pop with neon-bright pastels. Justin Hurwitz's jazz-infused score swells with triumphant waves of Broadway bombast.
Mary Zophres creates costumes breezy and bright for the leading lady; beautifully beige for the leading man.
Then, Linus Sandgren's smooth-sailing camera lens captures it all in l-e-n-g-t-h-y tracking shots gliding from one room to the next, from one character to the next, then back again.
“La La Land” operates on the simplistic “boy meets girl” musical premise, but Chazelle discovers exciting applications for arthritic cliches and conventions.
As Hollywood-star-crossed lovers, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling (they worked on “Gangster Squad” and “Stupid, Crazy, Love” together) hone their sizzling chemistry that happily augments their more-than-serviceable dancing and singing talents.
Stone plays Mia, an optimistic Colorado native working in a coffee shop on the Warner Bros. lot. She dreams of being a movie star.
Gosling plays Sebastian, a purist, wannabe professional jazz keyboardist. Fired by a supper club owner (J.K. Simmons) for refusing to stick with Christmas carols, Sebastian dreams of opening his own jazz club.
Mia and Sebastian's first meeting hardly qualifies as a cute one.
Near the conclusion of the traffic-jammed opening number, they exchange unpleasant faces and gestures.
Fate keeps throwing them together until Sebastian finally asks her out on a date.
Their first kiss occurs during a movie at the Rialto theater. At the same second, the celluloid film breaks and burns on the silver screen. Caution: metaphor alert!
They fall in love. While at an observatory, they break into a romantically woozie dance. Sebastian gently lifts Mia into the stars, then sashays across the Milky Way with her like a piece of magic from “Fantasia” or a Fellini film.
“La La Land” packs just enough character and plot to support Chazelle's direct assault on our emotions. “La La Land,” like jazz itself, is all about mood and feeling.
Pay particular attention to the movie's enchanting tune “City of Stars” (which, by the way, will win the Oscar for best song in February). Its first 13 notes will haunt you long after you leave the theater.
The lyrics do not speak about love, but about achieving dreams (“City of stars, are you shining just for me?”). That small distinction directly impacts their relationship.
And it sets up the movie's stunning final segment that re-imagines Sebastian and Mia's relationship as a happily-ever-after Hollywood musical.
Consider our cinematic socks knocked off.
“La La Land"
★ ★ ★ ★
Starring: Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, John Legend, J.K. Simmons, Rosemarie Dewitt
Directed by: Damien Chazelle
Other: A Liongsgate Films release. Rated PG-13 for language. 128 minutes