La La Land (2016)

The intricacies of taking a beloved genre of times past, and placing it into a new era bares with it a responsibility to both give homage to that genre but also to negotiate its context with in its new setting. How do you remain authentic while still being accessible to a modern audience? This is the question not only at the core of the narrative of Damien Chazelle's La La Land, but is the fundamental task of the entire film. The golden era of the movie musical has all but faded from the the public memory as a more modern societal skepticism has made it generally irrelevant. Chazelle has clearly labored with great love to find the chords in which a movie musical can thrive in our current public mood, and I do believe he was rather successful with one large flaw: the music. 

This classic story line of a young aspiring actress (Emma Stone), and a down on his luck jazz musician (Ryan Gosling) searching for artistic integrity, relevancy, and love beautifully engages the audience. This narrative coupled with vibrant saturated cinematography, and wonderful emotional honesty from our two leading players makes the film entertaining. Stone, and Gosling find an undeniable chemistry that kept me invested in their relationship, but also in their individual character's aspirations. And as they ultimately grew apart to follow their own dreams, we knew what they had sacrificed for it. 

However, as far as the movies' success as a Hollywood musical I found a rather mixed bag. I will commend Damien Chazelle first and foremost for his clear love of this genre. He is unmistakably devoted to old Hollywood and he crafted some beautiful moments. From Stone and Gosling's first soft shoe to their waltz amongst the stars he treated us to some visually charming movie magic. He also was exceptionally crafty in showing us the happy ending that could have been in a ending ballet. By using this standard dreamy dance number (a la Gene Kelly) he was able to show an old timey ending without undermining the more realist and poignant finish his story deserved.

But the most important part of any musical is the music. Here it was rather lack luster, and many of the vocals have been horribly auto-tuned taking away the real multidimensional timbre of the human voice. The vocals sounded as though they had been whittled down when they should be vibrantly springing from the screen. These were not even close to the warm tones of Gene Kelly, or the unabashed vocals of Judy Garland which left me longing for the voices of the past. And the songs, perhaps with the exception of "The Audition" did not leave a lasting impression. 

Overall: An incredible pursuit given in love with many successes from Damien Chazelle. I just wish more time had been given to the music itself, and less time in trying to make the vocals sound "perfect", especially at the expense of the film's impact. The human voice is many layered, and boldest when it is raw. Let us never make it sound small. But as always happy watching!