Ryan Gosling Emma Stone J.K. Simmons John Legend Rosemarie DeWitt Finn Wittrock
Would you like to visit an adult fantasyland
for a couple of hours? This movie
will take you there with its entertaining and still meaningful script (by
Director Damien Chazelle), its captivating, artistically presented
cinematography by Linus Sandgren, songs and score composed and orchestrated by
Justin Hurwitz, and two very fine actors (Gosling and Stone) who can sing and
dance up a storm as well as act.
The talent going into making the film is truly impressive. It is mostly light entertainment, but
makes insightful points about choosing a career and whether or not to stick
with original plans. It also represents a contemporary dilemma for
couples whose jobs take them in opposite directions. I loved the playful ending’s toying with us by
presenting alternatives from which we can choose.
Sebastian (Gosling) and Mia (Stone) seem
destined to meet, after a hostile encounter on the jammed freeway, a chance
meeting in a club, and a party.
They spar with one another, then dance together on a hilltop overlooking
the twinkling lights of Los Angeles, and before long, they’re ambivalently hooked. I say ambivalent because their first
date to a classic movie, Rebel without a
Cause, is just “for research.”
At this point, Sebastian is a struggling jazz
pianist who takes a purist stance about the genre, and is finding it hard to
get and keep a job. Mia goes to
one disheartening audition after another, in one of which the producer
interrupts a gripping emotional sequence to take a phone call, then dismisses
her. (I understand this was based
on an experience Gosling actually had.)
As their romance heats up, both get career
opportunities. Sebastian is
invited to join a combo run by his old college friend Keith (Legend), and Mia
writes a one-woman screenplay. But
after a time, they find they’re not spending much time together, primarily because
Sebastian has joined the combo and is often away touring. They have arguments and
misunderstandings, although during the course of these, each one provides
valuable counsel to the other. She
encourages him to follow his life’s dream of owning his own jazz club; he
boosts her confidence by encouraging her to continue to pursue writing and
acting.
We never know how things are going to turn out,
but throughout the story their intermittent songs and dances are electric (choreography is by Mandy
Moore). In these onstage
performances, Gosling and Stone are so smooth they appear to have worked
together for years, but this is only their third time to act together, and the
first time in a musical.
And BTW, that's Gosling actually playing the piano; not a double or CGI.
And BTW, that's Gosling actually playing the piano; not a double or CGI.
La La Land is magical in its fantasy
and in the artistry of all involved in the production.
No comments:
Post a Comment