Review of La La Land (2016) by Dirigiblepulp — 31 Jan 2017

The perfect amalgamation of Hollywood past and present. The slow transition from the wistful allure of dreams to the tangible pop of reality. The music and the songs are instant classic (by the second viewing it felt like coming home they fit so snugly and felt so right).

What's equally amazing is the character work, the re-molding of archetypes. How neither is an answer so much as a piece of a bigger puzzle. Seb's passion and devotion are his own undoing. He gets what he wants but he also is let down in nearly every other facet of his life. He doesn't "save" jazz. John Legend's Keith saves jazz (or at least starts to) and gets the best speech in the film when he tells Seb that he's too traditional and that jazz is about the future. But that's because Seb is selfish and he only cares about what he wants, at least insofar as it pertains to his dreams. He changes for Mia, but also realizes he has to let her go. Ironically this unselfish act leaves him alone. His passion, which we normally prize so much in films like this, doesn't make him big or famous, but instead leaves him small and alone. His type, the classic bold and passionate man with a dream who can't be stopped type, isn't real. But as an example to others it does (much like a good musical on our lives, more on that in a bit).

Mia in her empathy, grace and selflessness attains her dream and makes a family. Yet she doesn't have the person who helped her achieve all this. She tells Seb that his passion will become other people's if he believes in it enough, but it's his passion for pursuing A dream that affects her and causes her to write her play and sing a song and nail her audition. Her sensitivity is what makes her strong, a conduit for passions on screen and off.

What this movie could be suggesting, much like Whiplash's carefully constructed ideology about the costs and sacrifices of pursuing a dream, is that everyone needs a push. A push in the direction that you may not be capable of on your own. Mia developing a backbone, believing in herself because Seb does. Seb dropping his stubbornness and pride so that he can make money playing for a real gig so that he can open his club later. And that this is in effect the true beauty and romance of our lives. What the epilogue suggests is not "what could have been", so much as "what could never be." Life is a beautiful breathtaking musical of love and passion and romance and adventure, even if it doesn't end up how you think and doesn't follow a tightly scripted path. If you spend too much time worrying about why your life isn't a Hollywood fairy tale romance, you will miss out on the musicality and the truth of the present. Classic musicals are a state of mind not a state of being.