BEFORE: Ryan Gosling carries over again from "The Nice Guys" and completes a nice little trilogy of films that are set in L.A. Obviously anticipation is high for this one since it (seemingly) ALMOST won the Best Picture Oscar - that's enough to put it on my radar. Plus it got a lot of buzz during its release and the last awards season. Part of the most recent re-organization of film choices for November and December was for this exact reason, to prioritize the watchlist to try and get to the most important films first, even though there's a constantly shifting definition of what constitutes "important".
Today is my wedding anniversary, we've been so busy catching up after vacation that it kind of snuck up on us - OK, snuck up on me - but look, a romantic film appears on the schedule just in time. These things do have a funny way of working out.
THE PLOT: While navigating their careers in Los Angeles, a pianist and an actress fall in love while attempting to reconcile their aspirations for the future.
AFTER: I admit that I fell asleep last night while watching this film - now I have been starting my films a little later than usual, because after a week's vacation both DVRs were close to full, so I'm still in panic mode trying to clear them, whether that means watching a couple shows per night or trying to clear some VHS tapes to dub things to. Starting films at midnight or just after is a much better plan for staying awake during a whole film than what I'm currently doing.
But I think it also says something about the film, which didn't hold my attention much during the first hour. "Drive", by contrast, held my attention for its entire 100-minute length, while "The Nice Guys", at 2 hours 8 minutes, was more of a slog, but still I managed to stay awake. To me that suggests that there's nothing really special about the first hour of "La La Land", where our two main characters, Sebastian and Mia, almost meet a couple of times - once in L.A. traffic and again at a club where he's playing Christmas carols on piano.
The film then follows the eventual couple through four seasons - winter, spring, summer and fall - which is only odd because I thought the four seasons in L.A. were mudslides, earthquakes, brushfires and pilot season. What becomes clear to me is that I have a lot of hatred for Los Angeles, I doubt I could ever live there or even spend much time there - San Diego is great, but the thought of L.A. makes my skin crawl. I'd only consider spending time there if I manage to get on a winning streak while appearing on Jeopardy!...
And this first hour of "La La Land" more or less confirms everything I hate about L.A. - everyone is some kind of actor or musician or screenwriter, and is incredibly self-absorbed. What other kind of person writes a one-man (or in this case, one-woman) show about their life? Only the most self-obsessed, self-absorbed, self-indulgent people do that - "Hey, everybody, look at ME up on stage, talking about ME!" Ugh.
It doesn't even matter that when we meet Sebastian and Mia, neither one is very successful - she's working on a film lot, but as a barista, and he's got these grand notions of maybe opening up some kind of nightclub, but can't quite seem to get his act together enough to do it. Combined, they've got a pile of hopes and aspirations and seem to be waiting for fate to tell them how to succeed, or for time to make them realize that it's all futile. Despite this, they manage to come together and have some endearing dates (more-or-less) that follow the cinematic language of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly films. They dance in sync in random places, they somehow float through space in a planetarium, and this calls reality into question because it messes with our ability to suspend disbelief, but does allow us to feel their love at least through metaphor. Still, in the end, ho hum.
Because this is what Hollywood does - it shows us things that aren't real, so that we'll have dreams and aspirations of our own. But now I wonder if these Hollywood-induced fantasies do more harm than good, because suddenly as audience members, we see the discrepancy between what THEY have on the screen and what WE have in our own lives, and we're made to feel "less than". So as a New Yorker, I can say to Los Angeles - "See, THIS is why we hate you...you're not even real!"
I want to pause here and mention the fact that while on vacation last week, my wife and I visited Graceland, Elvis Presley's estate outside Memphis, TN. And two things struck us - first was the excess of the man's life, since we paid the extra few bucks to see not only his house, but his collection of cars, studded jumpsuits and his private jets. My wife remarked that "This is what happens when you give a 20-year-old millions of dollars..." and it's not hard to draw a line from Graceland to the culture of today's rich and self-entitled actors and recording artists, only now they're making billions instead of Elvis' millions.
The second thing that hit us was that the life of Elvis presented by the museum exhibits was completely sanitized, there was no mention of infidelity, divorce, drug abuse, or Elvis shooting at the television set if he didn't like what was on. Even his police badges from around the country was just presented as something Elvis liked to collect, rather than things that would allow him to commit crimes in just about any state. Elvis was also a movie star, so again, that's what Hollywood does, it shows us the illusion, the distorted reality, when the truth is that so many actors and musicians have regular human failings and most are not good role models in any way - they're just richer and more well-known than most of us.
But thankfully there is something of a shift in "La La Land", without spoiling anything I think I can say that there is some trouble in the relationship, and it occurs when both people gain some measure of success. The logical progression of this argument was fascinating to watch, because it was the closest that the film did come to reality. Someone might want their partner to get a job and become successful, but then find themself regretting it when he (or she) then has to work overtime, or go out of town for work. Well, do you want them to be successful, or not?
Plus, remember, we're talking about an actress and a musician here, two self-absorbed people at heart. Can either of them possibly learn that relationships require sacrifice, sometimes putting the other person first? Yeah, it's not looking good. I don't want to say any more about it, except that this film really redeemed itself in my eyes in the last half-hour.
Also starring Emma Stone (last heard in "The Croods"), John Legend, RoseMarie Dewitt, Finn Wittrock (last seen in "Unbroken"), Jessica Rothe, Sonoya Mizuno (last seen in "Ex Machina"), Callie Hernandez (last seen in "Sin City: A Dame to Kill For"), J.K. Simmons (last seen in "Labor Day"), Tom Everett Scott (last seen in "Parental Guidance"), Meagan Fay, Damon Gupton (last seen in "Whiplash"), Jason Fuchs, Josh Pence (last seen in "Fun Size"), Terry Walters, and a cameo from the voice of Ian Wolfe (last seen in "Reds").
RATING: 6 out of 10 iced coffees
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