Hollywood Narcism

Rating: 7/10 (4 June 2017)

I went all in to to film despite the Oscar buzz, not because of them. Director Damien Chazelle had wowed me with his story of a jazz drummer student striving for greatness in "Whiplash". It was both parts brutal and honest in its' projection of musicians in training. "La La Lan" is completely a fictional Hollywood tale made for the movies. Different movie but same love of Jazz character unable to commit to a girl. So, here we let the excursion begin.... into a TV commercial on a parking lot (that we only discover is L.A. at the end of the scene)..... Context missing and I was lost...
The genre demands instant suspense of disbelief once the music starts and that opening scene was as memorable as all of the other afternoon traffic jams we experience, albeit with folks certainly outside the ages range of 24 - 32 year old dancers preening for their 15 seconds of screen time. Ad agencies sell washing machines, yogurt, oranges and dish washers this way.
No matter what the stars, the plots, the choreography, the MUSIC has to be the star in a musical! Every top musical has numbers you leave the theater with some new love of song. I say the song, you say the movie, :"Maria", "Consider Yourself", "Cell Block Tango", "Aquarius" off the top of my head. And these are not the classics that were being paid homage to.
That out of the way, I really fell for the Emma Stone character. I didn't need for "Mia" to be singing "American Idol" style, which you'd expect in a Hollywood Musical. Her face alone gave way to multiple emotion, like her audition called for. Emma was wonderful to watch. Ryan Goslings' "Sebastian" is a bit stiff and his "Bogart" doesn't inspire a lot of emotional suspension of disbelief required to enjoy the lark of the adventure. The Hollywood Actress wannabe story line maybe cliché, but we like this story and even have come to expect the predictability of it. It is The American Dream and somewhat universal... just s=needs memorable tunes and for the male counterpart to figure out and buy into his character arc a bit more. I couldn't buy into his "jazz isn't dead/I have a dream/ I'm supporting my girl" miss mash.
So my experience wasn't all that I was hoping for, but much like Los Angeles itself, there's something to visit, but I wouldn't want to invest too much of my entertainment time there.