Up In La La Land

Rating: 8/10 (9 April 2017)

The story all begins with an enchanting, amber blur of cars and voices on a highway stopped by traffic. The voices cease, and the once-strangers transition into the opening musical number, "Another Day of Sun"-an upbeat tune accented by its catchy lyrics- about being a struggling Hollywood actor in Los Angeles. A bubbly girl in a bright yellow dress carols, "When they let you down, morning rolls around, and it's another day of sun," a metaphor for the resilience needed to make a living as an actor. La La Land is a vintage fairy-tale about an aspiring actor and an aspiring jazz musician with a common desire to pursue what they love. Since this film was a romantic musical, I was expecting a happy, fairy-tale ending with them falling in love immediately. However, the song "A Lovely Night" dispelled those predictions when Sebastian and Mia lament about how there's no romance between them at all and how it's, "such a waste of a lovely night." Later, Mia sings in an audition about how, "A bit of madness is key, to give us new colors to see," perhaps a hint on how she lost her stability in Sebastian and the colors he showed her. There is a common theme throughout the film, when the seasons change from Fall to Winter, to Spring and Summer. The changing of the seasons represents Mia and Sebastian's love changing and growing, and eventually ending in the Winter. Overall, the film was a captivating movie musical, however, some songs and the story line were more evocative of old movie musicals and the movie would have been more gripping.