Lack of Plot and Pleasure in La La Land

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 congestion—before the dance number started. Yes, a dance number—right in the middle of a modern-day LA traffic jam. What inspired writer/director auteur Damien Chazelle to go in this direction is, well, anyone’s guess: it’s a direction that he maintains throughout the course of the film—but it’s 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 magical—but fun and magic are two qualities lacking in La La Land. It’s like everyone in the film is so far repressed and stunted, spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually, that it’s 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 as we’re supposed to take Chazelle and this ode of his to…LA, is it?

On the one hand, it wants to be special—sets are so cleanly designed they come off as too clean (definitely not LA); and on the other hand, it struggles to say anything significant or of substance at all—making me, at least, wonder why it was taking itself so seriously in the first place. Artistically, fine—yes, everything on screen looks fantastic. Aesthetically speaking, yes, it’s all there—the scenery, the lighting, the acting, the costume design, the choreography—you could check off each one right down your list. These are the things a great, enchanting film is supposed to have, right? There’s just one gaping hole everyone involved in this film should have noticed: its plot. The plot of this film is just not very magical—at all. For something called La La Land, there’s just not a lot of la la to be found. The film tries to say that life in LA is full of possibility, romance, struggle, chaos, opportunity, and more—but at the end it feels unconvincing. And depressing. At least it got that latter point right about LA.

For example, the “lovely evening” scene opens with what’s meant to pass as witty banter between Emma Stone’s and Ryan Gosling’s characters—but it never rises above the level of what you’d find on an old episode of Gilmore Girls. In other words, it’s CW-style TV speak—not the stuff of Hollywood movie magic—certainly not the stuff of a several billion dollar budget romantic comedy-dramedy-whatever-it-wants-to-be musical ode to LA. Then the song that Ryan’s character begins to sing, as he (due to dress and setting) recalls old Hollywood tropes (Fred Astaire?), fails to inspire anything close to lovely feelings. It’s boring, flat, uninteresting—just like the “romance” between the two. The whole time watching it, I’m wondering: I’m supposed to care about these characters? Haven’t I already seen them and their relationship on every TV show of the past two decades? In effect, it makes living in LA seem dull. And LA is anything but dull.