Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

From a few posts back:
I agree with gbg, I've always liked Charles Grodin's deadpan affect. I caught him not long ago in Catch 22, he's pretty good in The Heartbreak Kid, but one of my favorite roles of his was as Steve Martin's friend in The Lonely Guy.

Director: Damien Chazelle
Writer: Damien Chazelle Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone
Genre: Musical Drama Romance

La La Land should have won the Oscar for Best Picture. It's one of the freshest ideas for a movie that I've seen in a long time...and it does everything right!

Director/Writer Damien Chazelle really gets the feeling of a classic 1940's Hollywood musical! No, this isn't a period piece, and indeed is set in modern day L.A. The style of film making and especially the visuals, are a love letter to those glamours technicolor musicals of days gone by.

Right off the bat, when I seen the old time logo: Presented in CINEMASCOPE I knew I was in for a modern-retro treat!


The opening scene on a crowded LA freeway, with the cars at a stand still, as the camera pans by them and we hear all the different types of music coming from the cars, firmly planted the film in the modern day.....Then like a 40s musical, the people exit their cars and break into song in vivid color, (a node to old Technicolor filming process)...Loved it! What great staging, and on what looked like a very real crowded freeway, how did they do that? Impressive!

I love the way they have the 'world' of La La Land decked out with icons of past movie stars and styling clues that makes the film seem like a 40s retro piece. We see this in Mia's apartment with the huge Ingrid Bergman poster and in the club that Sebastian plays piano in.

The buildings along the streets have this retro-ness look about them....Even in the way the story is constructed and in the way the dialogue flows, it's all very much styled after a traditional musical.


Both Mia (Emma Stone) and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) had oodles of chemistry together. But not the touchy-feely...gee-we're-in-love type...but a more substantiated relationship, that comes from within the actors. I believed they were a matched pair and as much as they loved each other, they love their dreams more...And that my friends is what La La Land is about...'the price we pay for our dreams'.

And in that regard the film was as poignant as it was gleeful. I loved the scene when after the party they talk a long walk to their cars and have their first big dance number, such a beautiful location and choreography. The dance is simple, and yet beautiful. No wonder that scene was used for the movie's poster. My favorite part of the scene was the kicking of dirt on each other shoes!

The big dancing in the stars number at the Griffith Observatory was very fun to see, and illustrated how their newly found love, gave them wings, and they were literally walking on air.

I liked the ending best of all, I won't spoil it, but I will say it was genuine. It reminded me of another classic movie about Hollywood, A Star is Born.

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Pleased you loved it Citizen. I consider Chazelle a pretty kinetic director and was worried that La La Land wouldn't appeal to you.

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Letterboxd

Why didn't you think I would like it?

I didn't like La La Land outside the look of the film but i'm sure that's a surprise to no one. Glad you liked it.

I've noticed alot of classic musical fans not like it because of reasons i can't remember. Might be that he's talking about.

I know Gideon liked it, and of course Raul, but I don't remember what others here thought of it.

You seem eaasily frustrated by the way modern movies are edited and I don't find Chazelle to be a throwback in that way. If you didn't like I thought that would be the reason.

Very true, I'm often frustrated by modern movies and how they're edited.

I was just thinking the other day how I need to start watching more 40s films as I've spent a lot of my movie time lately watching new stuff and haven't liked a lot of it.

The editing and construction of La La Land felt very familiar to me, very nostalgic. The director really knew his 40s-50s musicals and not only dressed the sets accordingly, but the dialogue, the character's actions, and scenes were all very reminiscent of past movie making. That's impressive to me.

Loved your review and glad that you liked the movie, I knew you would...I would agree with just about everything you've said here, except for the fact that it should have won Best Picture. So glad that you mentioned the opening number on the freeway, which I also thought I was brilliant. Stone and Gosling did have mad chemistry though I don't think Stone deserved the Oscar. I think Chazelle's win for directing was on the money though.

I didn't think anyone on this site watched more movies from the 40's than you do, Citizen.

Interiors would be a pretty good gauge as to whether or not you can handle Bergman,

Peter Weller looks awesome here.

Have you watched any Bergman films? Didn't think you would have since you don't like watching foreign language films.

I remember not understanding a lot of what was going on this movie storywise, but I do remember thinking that Val Kilmer's performance made everything else worth sitting through...Kilmer didn't make a wrong move in this movie...William Atherton was an appropriately slimy villain of the piece as well...God, I hated his character in his movie.

Another La La fan!!!!!

The parallels between Interiors and Bergman are well-documented among movie buffs.

i was avoiding this picture but after your review i gotta see it😆

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You can call it the art of fighting without fighting.

how did you find it raul?

Yes but i don't think you yourself can make that statement with any sort of conviction without seeing any Bergman. I've heard quite a few people call it Woody doing a bad Bergman impression; that seems to be a common albeit not a unanimous sentiment. I've not seen Interiors myself but i've heard that from people who know both Bergman and Woody very well and i trust their judgement.