Once Upon A Time In (And Around) Los Angeles

Rating: 9/10 (16 July 2019)

There are various kinds of reality about Los Angeles and its surrounding environs. One is the decades-long reputation it has of making dreams come true. Another, on the opposite end of the spectrum, is the equally long reputation it has of destroying those dreams. And still another is one where every wacky thing that can happen to any part of the human race, good or bad, does indeed happen: televised high-speed car chases; firestorms fueled by Santa Ana winds; incredible urban flooding; earthquakes; ethnic gang murders; riots; entertainment scandals (especially the latter, because...well, there's Hollywood). But in 2016, a totally unusual film came out that tried (and in many ways succeeded) in restoring a fair amount, if not all, of the reputation that L.A. has of being a proud metropolis. That film was LA LA LAND, a film that became one of the highest grossing musicals in Hollywood history and won a staggering six Oscars.
Beginning with one of the most elaborate opening musical numbers ever staged for any film, done on location at the interchange of I-105 and I-110, the film charts an aspiring jazz pianist (Ryan Gosling) who finds his career going nowhere, forced as he is to find gigs in dingy bars and clubs in and around L.A., and being prodded by a friend (John Legend) to adjust to the changing times of the jazz genre. And then there is an aspiring actress (Emma Stone) who, in-between casting auditions that also go nowhere, is serving her time out as a barrista to the stars. No one would think that these two disparate souls with dreams that are either being stalled or going in reverse could possibly meet, let alone fall in love. But this being Los Angeles in general, and Hollywood specifically, it does indeed happen.
Of course, nothing ever happens without some kinks. Even as Gosling and Stone find themselves falling in love, they also see their careers finally starting to rise, which in turn leads to their budding romance undergoing as much strain as one of the region's many earthquake faults. Stone is initially not even remotely fond of the jazz music that Gosling parlays his trade in; and Gosling is himself cynical of the acting business and even the approach of Angelinos to life in general ("they worship everything, and they value NOTHING"). Still, in between these foibles and acts of dissolution and disillusionment, both Gosling and Stone engage in wily banter and some of the most incredible musical numbers seen in any Hollywood film (outside of animated movies) for decades, including the wish-fulfilling "City Of Stars".
Damien Chazelle, who wrote and directed the 2014 Oscar-winning drama WHIPLASH, was taking a sizeable risk in making LA LA LAND. He clearly wanted to bring about in the late part of the second decade of the 21st century the same kinds of emotions that one felt in past musicals like SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, WEST SIDE STORY, and CABARET, but with something wholly original. But even with more recent box office hits like CHICAGO and DREAMGIRLS, musicals are as expensive to pull off as almost any other kind of film except for comic-book CGI extravaganzas; and some of the biggest ones, even if in the distant past, have been tremendous box office disasters. What Chazelle had going for him here, fortunately, were two extremely appealing leads in Gosling and Stone, as well as supporting turns from Legend, a devotee of old-school R&B and jazz music, and J.K. Simmons (who plays Gosling's boss, and who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in WHIPLASH). And even more to the point, Los Angeles and its satellite cities and landmarks serve as supporting characters themselves: the Hermosa Beach pier; the Griffith Observatory; the Rialto Theater in South Pasadena; the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood; the Colorado Street Bridge in Pasadena; and the aforementioned I-105/I-110 interchange in South Los Angeles.
Although it is at times a bit emotionally distant, LA LA LAND is still an entirely original musical in which the world, or at least L.A. itself, is the stage and the characters and the region itself all play their parts. This is never the easiest thing to pull off; but Chazelle and company managed to do it, and do it like gangbusters.