Low Stakes Escapism

Rating: 8/10 (16 April 2017)

In the years of the Great Depression, the average American went to damnable lengths just to pay bills or scare up food for their family. And yet, Hollywood was still able to pull off successful numbers at the box office. The reason, escapism. The late 1930's brought movies of pure joy and carefree lifestyles. Films like My Man Godfrey, Top Hat, Chaplin and Marx Brother comedies were a tonic to forget hardship. La La Land is a film in this vein. 2016 is coming to a close and has yet to pump its breaks as a freight-train of ugliness. La La Land will have one of two effects on viewers, the desired effect of escapism, or one of jaded cynicism. It was a telling experience that I fell firmly into the second category.
I will begin with how this movie succeeds, and it does so spectacularly. La La Land is a beautiful, engaging, and technical feat of production. Long choreographed takes and sparkling settings compliment music and dance that act as an ode to Hollywood classics that could sweep you away. The opening song and dance number sets the mood for how dutiful the production will be for the rest of the film. Hundreds of dancers jump and glide over car hoods on the interstate in perfect step, in a single take. The shot pulls back and the line of cars, and dancers, go on for miles. Here we meet our stars. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are Sebastian and Mia, classic dreamers. Mia is a part-time barista and even more part-time actress. Sebastian is a talented pianist that is willing to spin his wheels to the grave rather than sacrifice his integrity as an artist. They have a modern meet-cute, a middle finger on the interstate.
Like any classic musical, their relationship develops through a series of musical numbers rather than dialogue. They start as flirty enemies who dance at one another. When the romance picks up they dance with one another. We follow their romance as they court us through this new Hollywood that isn't so unlike the old. Sebastian lives and breathes Jazz, perfecting pieces off of garbled records that were pressed before he was born. Mia auditions for any tired cliché that will have her, all while going to sleep with a 9-foot Ingrid Bergman banner on her wall. La La Land certainly follows a formula, but it does so while celebrating it.
Now for the cynics. When you have a year like 2016, cute cat videos and puff stories on the news just can't quell the acidity of what's going wrong. La La Land takes place in a world void of these struggles. Consequently, it's hard to see these beautiful people and think of their struggles as anything but trivial. I found my smile frequently turning to an eye-roll when prompted to care about the conflict. Based on the overwhelming praise coming from countless other sources, I count myself as unfortunate for falling victim to this dissonance.
If there is anything imperfect about the musical arc of the film it's that it plays more like a score than soundtrack. The songs are as grandiose as any great Broadway number, but not as memorability. They may not be meant to be, but the songs don't exactly stay with you. This is a true romance, featuring actors with perfect chemistry. You root for them to a point, but when things get hard, their worst case scenario is still a dreamy existence in La La Land.