Love Lifts Them: The Romantic Nature of 'La La Land'

Grade: A+

From the moments where vehicles jam bumper to bumper on the Los Angeles highway and actors and actresses begin removing themselves from their cars, La La Land (2016) takes off into the stratosphere. Filled to the brim with ebullience, this film is rocket fuel for the human spirit.

Damien Chazelle snagged an Oscar® win becoming the youngest Best Director in history at the age of thirty-two. He deserved it. La La is its own identity but owes credit to Singin’ in the Rain (1952) amongst other Hollywood musical romantic comedies.

Academy Award winner for this picture, Emma Stone’s Amelia “Mia” Dolan, is just a simple barista. Now, she could have enjoyed her work as a coffee slinger and gone through the rest of her life in this position. Yet she wants to be an actress. She yearns to not just have her name in lights but to be a part of that great profession that causes audiences to laugh and cry.

Sebastian “Seb” Wilder (Ryan Gosling) is in a deep romance with the jazz tunes. He knows esoteric facts about musicians and is not afraid to share them with Amy once they finally meet.

The duo find themselves struggling and trying to find dollars to support themselves. In the process, a love affair grows. The dance and song routines seem impeccable and live up to the melodic title. The nickname of Los Angeles and Hollywood and surrounding areas lends a dreamy kind of quality. As if to say, “she’s in La La Land” if she thinks she’s going to rise above her station as a coffee clerk. Or, Seb is never going to break out of the Billy Joel “Piano Man” (1973) role.

Chazelle is keen on creating characters that resonate with the audience. Instead of dirtying up the two leads, he just presents their desires for better lives and their affinity for one another. He could have made Amy a cocaine addict and Seb a heroin junkie. Instead, the wunderkind director places his romantic stars in positions where they must overcome the little inanities that life throws at them.

The heroism that is displayed in both characters is the best part of the whole story. They see what they want and go after it. And not only that, they disallow anyone from ever stopping them on their journey to spiritual prosperity.

Jazz pieces seep into Chazelle movies like perfectly aged cognac. The uplifting theatrics and literal gliding through the air is a welcome and encouraging feat that the technical staff pulled off with elan. As the actors soar, the soul performs the same act.

Sectioned off into months and then years, the film presents a portrait of the power between two people who have found their real life hero of the spirit. They play and push each other to find greater heights and instances of inspiration. With Mia, she is so determined to get an acting job, she risks being shunned for having spilled coffee on her shirt. In later scenes, she writes a one woman play which flops and she has to return to her square.

Seb doesn’t fare as well either. After being fired from his gig as the guy who takes tip in a jar by tickling the keys, he is caught in an existential crisis as well. While all of this may seem like well tread ground, the buoyancy and the wit of the script and expert direction are spectacular. The audience gets to see up close how two lives intersect and then break apart and then receive a just consideration at the end.

La La Land is the preeminent example of what can be achieved when the right talent converges to forge something of eminence. The notes here drift among the clouds and reach higher and higher. In an era where musicals are often shunned on screen unless it’s a filmed version of the stage play about a certain statesman who lived in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, this movie sort of sneaks and slaps the audience across the face and then plants a giant kiss.