https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VDMf9m7FXd4
P.S. Unable to hyperlink from my phone
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The acting, cinematography, lighting, set design, score...almost every department is being praised
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Whiplash writer/director Damien Chazelle's new film La La Landpremiered at Venice Film Festival last night, and the first few reviews have started to trickle in.
There's been huge excitement for the movie given the popularity of both Oscar winner Whiplash and Chazelle's new leads, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.
Centring on an aspiring jazz pianist Sebastian (Gosling) who falls for a struggling actress Mia (Stone), La La Land's trailers and posters have been nothing short of breathtaking, with a bold and luscious aesthetic.
Judging by these early reviews, the film seems destined to ensnare a few Oscars this year, if not the big one. After all, Hollywood loves a film about Hollywood...
The Independent (Geoffrey Macnab)
"Damien Chazelle's La La Land is a wildly ambitious widescreen musical drama that, at its best, hits some very high notes indeed. It features exceptional performances from its two leads. The downside is that the film is uneven and has its moments of extreme kitsch and bathos."
The Guardian (Peter Bradshaw)
"La La Land is such a happy, sweet-natured movie - something to give you a Vitamin D boost of sunshine."
Deadline (Pete Hammond)
"Whether it is a dazzling song and dance opening set in a massive traffic jam on an L.A. freeway, or a spectacular sequence with Gosling and Stone flying high into the skies of the Griffith Observatory the musical numbers soar with their own vibrancy and urgency. We live in hard times but this is a movie worth savoring, something that entertains, enlightens and makes us feel good about being alive. It is not to be missed by anyone who still cares for the future of the American musical."
Variety (Owen Gleiberman)
"La La Land isn't a masterpiece (and on some level it wants to be). Yet it's an exciting ramble of a movie, ardent and full of feeling, passionate but also exquisitely " at times overly " controlled. It winds up swimming in melancholy, yet its most convincing pleasures are the moments when it lifts the audience into a state of old-movie exaltation, leading us to think, 'What a glorious feeling. I'm happy again.'"
The Hollywood Reporter (Todd McCarthy)
"All the same, for Chazelle to be able to pull this off the way he has is something close to remarkable. The director's feel for a classic but, for all intents and purposes, discarded genre format is instinctive and intense; he really knows how to stage and frame dance and lyrical movement, to transition smoothly from conventional to musical scenes, to turn naturalistic settings into alluring fantasy backdrops for set pieces, and to breathe new life into what many would consider cobwebbed cliches."
The Wrap (Alonso Duhalde)
"Fans of musicals will adore this sparkling cinematic love letter, and if others are slow to embrace it, Chazelle's screenplay sees them coming. 'You don't think it's too nostalgic?' asks Mia, regarding her play. 'That's the point!' responds Sebastian. Mia: 'And if people don't like it?' Sebastian: 'F-k em!'"
IndieWire (Eric Kohn)
"At its best, La La Land probes the irony of its existence, celebrating the greatness of a bygone era in the context of changing times. 'That's LA,' Sebastian concludes. 'They worship everything and they value nothing.' But that doesn't stop him from getting fired up about the underlying power of classic jazz. 'You can't hear it,' he implores Mia. 'You have to see it.' To that end, La La Land succeeds in making its sweet imagery sing, particularly with the sensational finale. In a wordless explosion of lights and shadows, Chazelle reignites the movie with fresh context that forces it to get real. Here, he arrives at the wrenching conclusion that even the most vibrant fantasy eventually must fade to black."
Screen International (Fionnuala Halligan)
"La La Land is classic escapism from the dream factory, shot on the Warner Bros lot in anamorphic Cinemascope in 35mil (in an unusual 2.52:1 ratio)...[not] without its issues, Chazelle's dream-like follow-up to Whiplash is as la-la-light as its title, tap-dancing its way into the hearts of incurable romantics everywhere.
The Hollywood movie musical has had its many ups and downs over the years, and there are always those Broadway diehards hoping their favorite musical will be the next to translate to the screen. Yet, the idea of doing an original movie musical without giving it a try-out on the stage, such as the case with La La Land, is something that's rarely ever attempted anymore; the most recent and successful exception is Baz Luhrmann'sMoulin Rouge!, and that film used previously written pop hits.
Even before making Whiplash, filmmaker Damien Chazelle showed an affinity for the genre, writing and directing the black and white indie musical, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench. It went mostly unnoticed and wasn't even able to get distribution, which is why it was nominated for a Gotham Award in the "Best Film Not Playing in a Theater Near You" category. It lost.
Now, seven years later, Chazelle is getting another chance to break through to audiences with his musical ideas, and in this case, the added experience he's gained has paid off immensely.
Opening on a congested Los Angeles freeway, one driver steps out of her car and starts singing a song, soon joined by a flash mob of other frustrated commuters. It's the type of number that proudly declares, "This is a full-on singing and dancing musical," while also immediately winning its audience over and putting them into the proper head space for a movie where anyone can break out into song.
During this intro, we meet Emma Stone's Mia, a struggling actress working as a barista on the Warner Bros. lot, and Ryan Gosling's jazz pianist Sebastian, whose musical career has also been faltering. Although they have a few brief and unfortunate encounters, they won't actually meet until much later in the film as we're allowed into their lives, seeing their struggles firsthand"Mia with horrendous auditions and Sebastian having to play in awful cover bands or live Christmas carols at a restaurant.
Mia shares the same dreams of being an actress as many Hollywood denizens while Sebastian yearns to have his own jazz club, and once they finally meet cute, things begin to develop until they finally get their much-anticipated first kiss almost an hour into the movie.
Maybe La La Land doesn't offer as original (or basic) an idea as Whiplash"there have been other musicals about relationships, includingThe Last Five Years and Chazelle's own"but it's the way Damien sets this up as a musical first, a comedy second, and then begins to explore their relationship in a more serious way that keeps you completely riveted to the screen every single second.
Chazelle captures Los Angeles through a glossy sheen, including most of the well-known landmarks, yet this isn't just a love letter to LA; it is a love letter to old-time Hollywood musicals and to jazz, a musical style that's dying. This couldn't be any clearer than when Sebastian gets a gig playing with "The Messengers," a group fronted by John Legend's Keith, who has clearly sold out his jazz roots and wants to drag Sebastian down with him. Watching Gosling grit his teeth during one of the Messengers' live numbers is one of many funny moments.
As the film progresses, we start to see each of them making headway towards success, which in turn creates cumbersome hurdles for their relationship. By the time we get to the last act"appropriately titled "Fall""musical numbers have almost been excised completely.
If there's any question that Emma Stone can do anything"sing, dance, be funny or be emotionally dramatic"her role in La La Landpulls everything she's done in movies as diverse as Birdman and Easy A to create a new plateau for her as an actor. Stone even gets a "Jennifer Hudson moment""referring to the big number in Dreamgirls"that is almost guaranteed to clinch her another Oscar nomination next year (and probably even win her the Oscar.)
Ryan Gosling has already proven himself to be the type of Old Hollywood leading man that we just don't see that often anymore. He's so good with the film's dance numbers and the inherent humor, doing a couple effective double takes similar to what we saw him do in the recent The Nice Guys. Unfortunately, Gosling's constantly being overshadowed by the far more spectacular Stone, although Gosling helps to keep things light, which is equally as important as the eventual drama.
It's impossible not to become completely enraptured by the film's songs written by Justin Hurwitz with lyrics by Tony winners Benj Pasek & Justin Paul, but also with its score, consisting of jazz piano weaving in and out of the songs to get everyone in and out of their numbers. It is also little surprise to see the name "Marius De Vries" as the film's "executive music producer," since he was musical director on Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge!
More than anything, La La Land is a movie about following your dreams and learning how to adjust them when they don't seem achievable. But there's also something to be said about fate and being pulled together with the one with whom you belong.
The film's last few minutes"which we won't reveal"feature an absolutely amazing number that encapsulates everything we've seen up until that point. It's absolutely awe-inspiring what Chazelle accomplishes within this sequence, both musically and also with the storytelling.
In fact, it's hard to find any single fault with what Chazelle has done in La La Land, because he has finally accomplished what he set out to do in Guy and Madeline, but with far stronger actors and collaborators to create something absolutely unforgettable. Few people will be able to see this movie only once.
LIONSGATE
La La Land will be a lot of people's favorite movie of all time. It's going to be one of those movies listed under "favorite" in online dating profiles from people who want to be thought of as hopeless romantics, who maybe don't quite get what the movie is actually about. La La Land is what they call a "humdinger" of a movie. It's the movie that will save this wretched year of movies.
(There are obviously other great movies in 2016 - I've just seen a bunch of them this week - but now when people think of 2016, they will think of La La Land and smile. Then maybe cry a little. Then smile again.)
Speaking of humdingers, the Damien Chazelle film (which premiered Monday night to thunderous applause at the Toronto International Film Festival) opens up with one hell of a sequence. The camera pans over a fairly typical Los Angeles traffic jam, but then one by one the occupants of each car emerge into what becomes a glorious song and dance number, filmed on an actual Los Angeles highway. It's a glorious spectacle. (I'm now going to write the word "glorious" again, adding an exclamation point for effect.) Glorious!
Right after this number, it's on this highway we meet Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and Mia (Emma Stone). Their first meeting isn't exactly what would be defined as a "meet-cute," as Sebastian gives Mia the finger for not paying attention to the traffic ahead of her.
Mia is an aspiring actress who's frustrated by her lack of success, working as a barista on a movie studio lot's coffee shop. Sebastian is a talented, yet feckless jazz pianist who loses his job playing at a restaurant when he refuses to stick to the holiday-themed setlist provided by the restaurant's manager, played by J.K. Simmons. (Simmons isn't in La La Landmuch, but he makes the most of when he's there.) Sebastian eventually resigns himself to playing Keytar for an 80s cover band. (Which, of course, gives La La Landan excuse to develop a scene surrounding a-Ha's "Take on Me" and A Flock of Seagulls' "I Ran." If you can't smile during this scene, you have no soul and have probably already died.)
As Mia and Sebastian keep running into each other at Los Angeles nightspots and parties, the first act of La La Land is all bright colors, singing and dancing as the two slowly fall in love. (My gosh, this movie... I'm writing this early on a Tuesday morning and am still on a natural high from seeing this 15 hours ago. I'm also a little hungover, but that's a different story.)
There's a moment in La La Land when you will think to yourself, Hm, there hasn't been a song or dance in awhile. Things aren't quite as pretty all the time. Mia doesn't look at Sebastian quite the same way anymore. Sebastian stares at a stain on the ceiling in Mia's room that we never noticed before. Basically, reality starts to set in: Both Mia and Sebastian become busy with their personal dreams - Mia starts a one-woman play; Sebastian joins a band fronted by a famous musician named Keith (John Legend) - which means promises aren't kept anymore and feelings start to get hurt.
There's no way I would spoil the ending ofLa La Land (I'm not sure I could even if I tried), but I will say the last few minutes leading up to the film's ending had me swooning in my seat. As he proved withWhiplash, Damien Chazelle knows how to end a movie. It's almost like he structuredLa La Land like a concert setlist, knowing at just what moment to play a certain track - and knowing to save the best for last to send the audience home on a high that, for me, is still going. (I honestly don't know how long it will last. If I still feel like this in a few hours, I might have to call a doctor. I think they are free in Canada?)
La La Land is why people see movies in public. There's even a scene in La La Landin which characters discuss how they'd rather just watch movies at home. (This is obviously a big middle finger by Chazelle to that line of thinking.) There have been a few trend pieces over the summer that "movies are dying." And hey, maybe that's true. In the world we live in, we really don't know what movie distribution will look like in ten years. Things are changing quickly.
But, with La La Land, movies aren't dead yet. With La La Land, movies have just announced that they are very much alive and well and won't be going anywhere, at least on this day. Not today. Not when something like La La Land exists in the world
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