{"id":36776,"date":"2016-09-26T13:35:37","date_gmt":"2016-09-26T20:35:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=36776"},"modified":"2016-09-27T12:43:42","modified_gmt":"2016-09-27T19:43:42","slug":"la-la-land-chazelle-2016-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=36776","title":{"rendered":"La La Land (Chazelle, 2016): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Viewed by Larry Gleeson<\/a> at Venice Film Festival.<\/p>\n

\"\"Film Director Damien Chazelle premiered his new film, La La Land<\/a>, at the Sala Grande Theater as the Opening Night Film for the 73rd<\/sup> Venice International Film Festival. La La Land<\/em> comes on the heels of Chazelle\u2019s Oscar nominated screenplay adaptation for 2015\u2019s Whiplash, <\/em>where a highly intense music teacher molds a young, dedicated student. J.K. Simmons performance as the teacher garnered him an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role. Venice Film Festival Director, Alberto Barbera, described La La Land<\/em> \u201ca wonderful film, a classical musical, and a marvelous tribute to American cinema from a contemporary perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Chazelle, an avid music lover, had wanted to do a musical spectacle in the manner of Jacques Demy\u2019s The Young Girls of Rochefort<\/em> and The Umbrellas of Chambourg\u00a0 <\/em>while mixing in a splash of Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen\u2019s Singing in the Rain<\/em>. Moreover, Chazelle wanted a realism mixed into the story. Having resided in Los Angeles for the last ten years and having had a love affair with the city, Chazzele chose the City of Angels to set his Hollywood success seeker film.<\/p>\n

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The film opens without much fanfare in a typical Los Angeles morning traffic jam. A young woman, Mia, played by Emma Stone, in a white Prius, is having an issue with her phone and misses an opportunity to move forward as the traffic jam has freed up somewhat. The young man behind her in a late 1980\u2019s maroon colored Buick Riviera convertible, Sebastian, played by Ryan Gossling, lets her know with a blare of his horn and a not-so-friendly \u201cgood morning to you\u201d gesture. Soon traffic slows again. This time, however, as radio are being dialed in, drivers begin exiting their vehicles and break into to an energetic, six-minute song and dance number, \u201cAnother Day of Sun,\u201d staged on the 110 freeway overlooking downtown Los Angeles. As the song concludes, the title is flashed across the screen and the film is off and running with a start reminiscent of Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret in Viva Las Vegas.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

La La Land is more about relationship and the life-changing experience two young lovers gain from each other. Mia is an aspiring actress mired in her real job as a barista juxtaposed against s failed series of acting auditions where she is continually interrupted. Sebastian, on the other hand, is a coarse, die-hard classical jazz pianist who doesn\u2019t believe in compromising his convictions for anything or anyone. As their paths begin to cross Sebastian brushes off Mia as someone who will never understand his plight \u2013 until she does. When their paths finally converge, the harsh realities of life begin to set in and the two unknowingly turn to each other in raw emotional exchanges and thereby find the strength each needs to reach the stars.<\/p>\n

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In a powerful denouement in the city full of optimism and broken dreams, the story concludes with a Mick Jagger and Rolling Stones truism echoed faintly at first only to be finished with an exclamation point:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can’t always get what you want<\/p>\n

But if you try sometime you find<\/p>\n

You get what you need!\u201d<\/p>\n

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And if the story isn\u2019t enough in itself, the catchy musical numbers credited to Chazelle’s long-time friend and co-collaborator, Justin Hurwitz, will keep almost any music aficionado\u2019s attention. If not, then the roving camera movement of cinematographer Linus Sandgren is bound to keep eyes in the scene. And, if that\u2019s not enough, then the supercharged production numbers from choreographer Mandy Moore will keep you riveted as they sync in timing with Sandgren\u2019s camera movement allowing the actors seemingly the ability to levitate. And in vein with Chazelle\u2019s vision and outright homage to the musicals of the 50\u2019s and 60\u2019s, Production Designer David Wasco keeps the screen illuminated with a bright vision of reds, yellows, pinks, pastel greens and sky blues, aided wonderfully by Mary Zophres’ costuming, while the filming locations could very well serve as a Los Angeles pop culture tour.<\/p>\n

If there’s only one film you can see this year – make it La La Land<\/em>! Highest recommendation.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Viewed by Larry Gleeson at Venice Film Festival. Film Director Damien Chazelle premiered his new film, La La Land, at the Sala Grande Theater as the Opening Night Film for the 73rd Venice International Film Festival. La La Land comes on the heels of Chazelle\u2019s Oscar nominated screenplay adaptation for 2015\u2019s Whiplash, where a highly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1207,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[287],"class_list":["post-36776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","tag-venice-international-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36776\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}