La La Land--the return of the musical

I thought "Gangster Squad" was flawed but moderately entertaining:

Gangster Squad [Blu-Ray] (2012)

Felt the same way about "CSL": it came with definite filmmaking problems but it entertained if you shut down your brain:

Crazy, Stupid, Love [Blu-Ray] (2011)

 

Yeah, I saw Gangster Squad and while it was a cartoony cliche-fest, it was entertaining enough for what it was. I much preferred Crazy, Stupid, Love which I have in my movie archive, Gangster Squad is not worthy of that honor.

 

Never saw Moonlight, so I give the prize to La La Land. Since you brought up McDonald's, to bad the Founder wasn't nominated.

 

I just added up the box office of all the Best Picture nominees... my rough number is that the $370 million made by La La Land is almost equal to all the other movies combined. Just sayin'.

 

Just back from seeing La La Land and boy, was I bored all the way through. I was totally underwhelmed. Weak, tatty choreography, weak songs, poor dancing, a twee script. Hells bells, what is all the fuss about?

 

You must've seen the wrong film -- that's not the movie I saw. That film won six Oscars, six BAFTAs, seven Golden Globes, the ACE award for editing, the CAS award for sound mixing, the DGA award for best director, the PGA award for best picture, and made $370 million (so far), which I think was about twice as much as any other nominated film. Wikipedia says it was nominated for 200 awards and won 86 of them, which is not exactly chopped liver. This was a universally well-reviewed film that also happened to be commercially successful.

I can't defend the movie from people who attack it for not being deep and emotionally wrenching, but I think there's a place for bright and sunny musicals in modern cinemas. Not everything has to have a message; not everything has to be serious; not everything has to be profound and emotional. I can enjoy the film purely on the basis of the cinematography (which won), the editing (which was nominated), the art direction (which won), and the sound mix (which was nominated). I think it did what it set out to do, which is just to tell the story of two struggling people in LA who are desperate to be successful, but ultimately discover that success was not quite what they expected and they don't get each other... and I think even a simple story like this can be fine when it's this well-done. I think it's a credit to the director that he resisted the attempts by studio people to make La La Land about a struggling rock musician and give it a happy ending, and instead he stuck with the jazz motif and insisted on a sadder, more wistful ending. I think that elevated the film quite a bit.

I get why it lost for Best Picture, because the Academy (in recent years) has generally chosen downbeat stories that take great risks and usually plumb the emotional depths of their characters. This is not that kind of film. I really liked Arrival and believed it's one of the most thoughtful, unique, complex ideas presented as a film in a long time, and I love the idea of a traditional science fiction film without explosions and giant robots that has something to say. All the other films were more than worthy and I'd have no problem with any of them winning or being nominated. It's good to have choices, especially when they're all at a level this high.

 

I love musicals - this just wasn't a particularly good one. If Hollywood wants to make a great musical again, they need to give a film to a Bollywood director - they know how to make musicals over there.

Arrival is one of the films that are going to be remembered decades from now.

 

"Just sayin'" what? That box office receipts "prove" it's the best of the 9 movies?

 

No, PJ saw the right movie. I think you watched a copy of "Singin' in the Rain" and got confused into believing you were watching "LLL"!

 

Read my message again and see if it sinks in this time.

 

I gotta say, I'm reminded of the time Ghandi beat out E.T., back in 1982. To me, Ghandi was a very good -- but not great -- historical drama of an important man who dreamed of freedom and peace for the people of India. But I don't think it's a mass-market kind of film, and I didn't find the story compelling or interesting... but it was a good movie. E.T. was a far more memorable picture, and I doubt that most people around today would remember Ghandi, Missing, Tootsie, or The Verdict. All good films, some very good... but memorable? Not that much.

 

I suppose it depends on when the aliens actually land.

I've seen Ghandi several times since I saw it in the theater. While it's not The Shawshank Redemption, it is surprisingly re-watchable.

 

You'd be hard pressed not to remember Tootsie!

 

Oh I wasn't expecting anything deep and emotional, it's just that the film lacked real style. I didn't find it at all bright and sunny either. It was just drab, clumsy and pedestrian. I thought it was very poorly written and directed. With all the awards and enthusiasm around it, I was expecting to blown away like I was with Top Hat, The Red Shoes, Singing In The Rain, An American In Paris, All That Jazz, Moulin Rouge, Sweeney Todd (hardly bright and sunny that one though! ),... The sets were lousy, the fantasy sequences were timid, lacking classy art direction.
That opening scene on the motorway was pretty clever for the long takes but is was very scrappy, messy choreography. Same goes for that awful dance of the girls in their shared apartment. Christ, is that the best you can do? When the actors drifted into song or dance it was devoid of panache. The actors were pretty poor-to-average dancers, especially Gosling (who has the screen presence of a bored bank clerk or a sardine). However Emma Stone put in a first class acting performance but boy, was I pleased when it all finished.

 

I can agree with this. I love musicals so much that I'm usually the only non-Indian in the theater when Bollywood movies play at my favorite theater to get my musical fix. And this was mediocre - music, dancing and story. I only saw it once in the theater, it didn't impress me enough to bother to see it twice.

They need to let Joss Whedon do a musical. He managed to make a much more entertaining musical on an infinitesimal budget with Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Or the Gregory Brothers.

 

Yes! The "Once More With Feeling" ep of BTVS is still a classic:

 

Joss Whedon does amazing work, and I'm sad that he stepped away from Marvel to kind of "retire" for a couple of years. He's got some stuff in development, but he has said that Avengers: Age of Ultron just about killed him. My suspicion is that there was a lot of studio interference and he didn't get the autonomy that he felt he deserved.

If anybody could pull off a musical, Whedon would be one of them. Spielberg has said many times he'd like to do one at some point, and there were some musical numbers in 1941 and Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom, but never a full-fledged one. I think he's worried it'd be a huge flop. Directors at his level have had huge musical flops before (and I'd put Coppola and Scorsese on that list).

 

Too much money at stake.

If Whedon was given a La La Land budget, I think his fan base is large and solid enough that it would be a sure bet. He could do Buffy: The Musical with his brothers. And then, of course, it could go to Broadway and he could win a Tony.

 

BTW, for those waiting for the Blu-ray (due out in a few weeks), here's some behind-the-scenes shots that surprised even me. It's interesting to look at the camera technique going on: a guy with a Steadicam walks out of a hallway, across a sidewalk, and steps onto a crane which then goes up in the air to get a huge wide shot. It's an impeccable technique, one that goes back to 1976 and Bound for Glory, which used the same trick...

 

Yeah, exaggeration for effect causes people to say silly things sometimes.

 

I love the grip dangling from the crane at 20 seconds in.

 

What can I say: Yes, it's not perfect, but I like "La La Land" for many of the reasons Vidiot points out. Plus I've got a soft spot for Emma Stone ever since "Easy A."

If I want to see a closer-to-perfect musical I can always watch, say, "West Side Story." But this one has a lot of cinematographic values and, IMHO, very good acting by Emma. Can't say the same for Gosling.

 

'Kramer vs Kramer' popped up as an answer on Jeopardy the other night. It difficult to believe that it won 'Best Picture' - beating out 'Apocalypse Now' and the very enjoyable 'Breaking Away'. I wouldn't describe it as a "good film" and certainly not memorable. 'Kramer ...' is the type of movie you want to forget. My guess is that in a year or two both 'La La Land' and 'Moonlight' will largely if not only be remembered for the envelope mixup. I bet very few people can name the best picture winner from last year, and if you mentioned its title, 'Spotlight', can even remember the film.

 

That behind-the-scenes video linked above only underscores how mediocre the choreography was, AND that the camerawork, however interesting its execution, did nothing to impart any additional impact. The music deserved better, imo.

 

I think of La La Land this way: Classic Hollywood musicals were all about a type of choreography that was unattainable by ordinary mortals. People watched to be transported away from their dreary lives by visions of perfection that uplifted their spirits, even though that vision was complete artifice. La La Land is a conscious effort to move beyond that style and artifice, to invent something that can still be called a musical, but which seems more relatable to today's audiences. I wasn't looking for perfection, but for feelings expressed in an honest way, at which I think La La Land succeeded; judging by box office, I'd say audiences agreed.

John K.