From saccharine to cynicism

Rating: 10/10 (9 February 2017)

I vote "excellent" because I *judge* a movie only from the perspective as a pathetically passive audience member whose only power is either to stay or walk away. The movie is excellent because of its integrity. It doesn't polish up the actors (like they did in earlier days), the movie doesn't even bother to make the characters look "cool" or their abodes look like they were designed by your favorite interior designer. What they deal with every day (the songbook, "is this gluten-free?") is also real. If I would be living in LA I would go through exactly the same. Even their romance feels real to me. The song and dance parts are of course a manipulated hyper-reality, but they are real in the sense that they are not trying to dazzle me, the audience, with impossible moves and taped-up smiles. With a little practice I can make those moves. Failure to become an actress, selling out principles, experiences are real too. But neither falls back to cliché behavior like drug use and violence, which makes it also real, most people move on after they tried "the acting thing" and become insurance saleswomen and not druggies. What's also real is that you have to put yourself out there to get noticed. What's also real is that when you want your own club you have to have some earned money in the bank to realize *your* dream. You also have to have people around you who have your back and willing to take that extra step; pick you up from Colorado to do an important audition. It's also real that success trumps people in Hollywood and although the ending seems confusing, it's beyond *real* that people in this hyper-capitalistic state we are in opt for money and status over another human being they deeply love. I think it's cynical, but, the real clinchers is that if you or I would be in a similar position would we ignore the pain that is tearing apart our heart and pour ourselves into the next song or the next role?