Don't Believe The Hype

As per usual this post will contain spoilers.

Now before I begin I will address what will undoubtedly be the universal response to the mere fact that I am even bothering to review a movie that I was never going to like. I understand why those who know me would say this as in all honesty the topic of this review is about as far from a film that I would choose to watch as you can possibly get but in reviewing movies and offering an opinion I have to be prepared to go to places that I would normally avoid and it is not always a given that I will automatically come away from the viewing with a negative outlook.

With all that said I would ask that you give me the benefit of the doubt and read to the end of this review in order to give me an opportunity to tell you why I have reached the conclusion that I have after watching the latest big thing which of course is La La Land.

I feel fairly confident that you the reader has heard of La La Land as it is being touted as the one to watch at this years Oscars especially after it took a record 7 Golden Globes at this years ceremony.

La La is a throwback to the old musicals of the early to mid 20th Century when actors/dancers such as Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and co were about as big a star as you would find during that time. It is written and directed Damien Chazelle who is best known for Whiplash and stars Emma Stone (Amazing Spiderman) and Ryan Gosling (Drive) who both do their best to add dancing and singing to their repertoire in this film.

The story takes place in modern day Los Angeles where aspiring actress MIa (Stone) meets and falls for struggling jazz pianist Sebastian (Gosling). After opening with a musical number in the midst of a traffic jam on a freeway we follow our central characters as they deal with their own issues until they bump into each other and of course fall in love, although not before cracking out a tune or two alongside elaborate dance routines.

So MIa continues to find it hard to get her big break whilst Sebastian lands a gig that whilst paying well flies in the face of his belief in the purity of jazz as a musical art form. Not alot happens until Mia attempts to put on her own one woman show which Sebastian fails to get to in time and so MIa heads home having had enough of the LA lifestyle.

Luckily enough Sebastian takes a call for Mia which is from a studio offering her a job and so he goes and brings her back although life is not all rosy in the garden of Mia and Sebastian as he breaks the whole thing off to allow her to follow her dream without being distracted by him.

Lets now jump forward 5 years where we find Mia married and with a daughter living the family life. This is of course the perfect opportunity for her new husband to take her out on a date which winds up in a club where lo and behold Sebastian is playing (isn't it luckily they never ran into each other during the 5 years we aren't shown). This leads to another dance routine which shows events from the movie as if things had been done differently and it is the two star crossed lovers who end up together rather than apart. My take away from this part of the film is that Mia is clearly still not over Sebastian and therefore the future for her family is far from golden.

And that was La La Land, a film that does exactly what it sets out to do and does it extremely well. As mentioned above it swept the board at the Golden Globes and is highly favoured to do something similar at the Oscars but when it comes to how it is being received by audiences it is fair to say that it is fairly polorizing. A quick look at the reviews posted on IMDB shows that movie goers either love it, giving it 10 out of 10, or loathe it, giving it either 1 or 2 out of 10, there does not seem to be any middle ground.

As for my take on the film I have to admit that it didn't really do anything for me. Yes it is true that I am not a fan of musicals anyway (The Blues Brothers is my favourite film of the genre) but that does not mean that La La Land automatically starts from behind the 8 ball. I will give the film makers credit as it is wonderfully shot and is quite a beautiful film to look at. I am not a lover of Goslings work but will admit that he is perfectly servicable here as is Stone who I have a lot of time for as an actress. As hard as they try however they simply cannot channel the spirit of the musical stars of the past and I can see why fans of the old films would not instantly fall in love with the lead performances here.

The soundtrack of the film is very distinctive which is not surprising considering the director but if you are not a fan of this style of music then it could become jarring fairly quickly but for me it was unobtrusive and something I really didn't mind.

My main takeaway from this movie however is that it has obtained the plaudits that it has purely based on its uniqueness rather than its actual content. There is nothing particularly special about La La Land, not that it is a bad film it is just a perfectly serviceable one, but because of its nature and the fact that it does stand out from the crowd it is garnering more attention and praise than it actually deserves.

So in scoring La La Land I'm going to give it 6.5 out of 10 because for me it is a fairly run of the mill affair but there is enough to like about it to rank it slightly higher than the halfway mark of 5.

I am pretty sure that many of you reading this review will strongly disagree but that's what great about movies and the conversation they can generate.