La La Land Review
I have been to LA, and the only thing about La La Land that I found remotely to resemble my experience was the opening scene of traffic congestionbefore the dance number started. Yes, a dance numberright in the middle of a modern-day LA traffic jam. What inspired writer/director auteur Damien Chazelle to go in this direction is, well, anyones guess: its a direction that he maintains throughout the course of the filmbut its not one that everyone is going to find enjoyable. One reason for that is simply for the fact that the ride never really seems to go anywhere special. Dance numbers in films like those La La Land wants so hard to resemble tend to be fun and magicalbut fun and magic are two qualities lacking in La La Land. Its like everyone in the film is so far repressed and stunted, spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually, that its hard to tell the difference between any of them and the cartoon characters on Sponge Bob Square Pants. I used to read reviews by critics complaining in the same way about Adam Sandler movies. The difference here is that Sandler never took himself as seriously...
The sky as the sun setsthe lamp lightingthe yellow dress Emmas character wears: the purple tie and pants Ryans character wears with the white shirt: it all looks great. But youd be better off muting the action (if watching at home) and making up your own
dialogue,
music, and sound. Yet, even then it might fail to inspire because theres just something about watching these two characters interact that feels about as forced as that opening dance number in the middle of the traffic jam. Maybe this is what passes for chemistry in LAbut if thats the case, I think Ill stay put where I…
