La La Land

Rating: 10/10 (15 January 2017)

Recently filmmaker Ridley Scott admitted that he found the current state of cinema to be declining and even himself admitted to being asked numerous times to be a director, or somehow involved in any number of superhero related movies. Thankfully to this day he has not done so and while some of his choices as a director, or producer tend to be a little perplexing and leaving the viewer wondering why he did said project, I think he may be on to something with the general statement that cinema does seem to be declining in quality and what would have played on the big screen even 30 to 40 years ago, is not the same today and that same level of expertise, artistry and quality just doesn't seem to be there a lot of the time. Jean-Luc Godard once famously said that cinema began with D.W. Griffith and ends with Abbas Kiarostami. With the unfortunate passing of Kiarostami this past year, does that mean cinema is definitely gone for good? In some ways yes, but then again on the other hand you have a film like La La Land which is very much in the same kind of style and spirit of the movies of yesterday while being completely original on it's own, so maybe in a sense there is still hope for today's cinema yet. Within the first ten to fifteen minutes of La La Land, I really was not anticipating that I would end up liking the film as much as I did. The film started out with bubbly and very much pop flavoured dance and musical numbers that seemed so happy and bright that I felt that if the whole movie was this upbeat and sunny than I probably should have seen something else at the theatre instead because what I was witnessing was so sickeningly sweet that it would even turn most kids who grow up on that stuff off of it. Thankfully however the trailers I had seen for the film as well as everything else I knew about it proved to be true and that wasn't the kind of film this was going to be. Instead we do have a film that in it's own way is trying to recapture the magic and charm of the movies that generations ago people grew up on and films and music that we should be watching today instead of the countless hours we throw away on mindless entertainment and games with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The film loves old Hollywood from the movies to the actors to the big budget musicals of yesteryear. It also pays homage to music such as the jazz classics that I know any die hard jazz fan would go head over feet over. In a sense those also attuned to movies with a more European feel (think the French New Wave of the 50's and 60's) will also most likely find a lot to like here as well because this film is not simply just plagiarizing these movies and cultural icons of old, but instead borrows from their styles and techniques and as I said earlier, they make a movie all their own using those trademark pieces of style and music and they do so in a way that is pulled off to perfection and will leave even the hardest of film critics longing for movies from decades ago pretty pleased at what still proves to be talent and good work with movies and filmmakers in this current generation. The film is more than anything else a love story between two people who often at first seem completely at odds with each other, but with any good romance, sometimes the opposites do attract and can lead to magic. The film also incorporates old Hollywood and the fact that many classic films and even styles of music are dying because today's generation is different. People are now so into themselves, or their electronic devices that they no longer have the interest, or curiosity about the true arts anymore. I once had a film professor acquaintance who told me that in his university film class that the students he had did not want to see older movies, but things that were current, or modern at least to them. How incredibly sad. La La Land reaches out to those lost arts and shows us that these forms of art definitely need to stay alive and need to be rediscovered by each and every generation. The film also details the struggles of trying to make it in the arts scene and with all the rejections and disappointments you get, sometimes it definitely is hard to keep your chin up. However these characters have perseverance and will give it everything they got and ultimately prove that dreams can happen and sometimes with a little help you get not just get what you want, but maybe something better is lying just around the corner for you. La La Land has a lot of style, the musical numbers are all very well done and it's a film with some great character development and it truly will be relatable to this generation, but countless others as well. This is a film of originality that proves that Hollywood is not dead yet, nor is film and we might just have a few surprises left from some up and coming filmmakers, so with films like La La Land, Hollywood and film is still alive and thriving for now at least which I think is a great place to be.