La La Land

Hollywood is the producer of romance in many ways. And this movie is a love letter to the industry with the story of these aspiring performers, which I can objectively appreciate, to some degree.

I caught it in theaters on the 10th anniversary for the first time. La La Land just wasn't for me. East Coast is beast coast in my mind I suppose and this romanticized slice of the world occupied by a semi-autistic jazz pianist and a wannabe actress just didn't do too much for me. It looked great. The ending packed a punch. And it was all well acted. But the dialogue and the majority of the story beats were just... fine.

If I wanted to look back at Hollywood and tremble and quake and laugh and cry and whatnot, Babylon is the route I'd go. Definitely not The Fableman by Spielberg, that was junk except for David Lynch's cameo in there.

And for this, I've come around to musicals to some degree. I still generally prefer a straightforward narrative without song-and-dance schticks. But there's more than a handful of musicals I enjoy these days (esp. looking at you Nightmare Before Christmas). So, I was hoping some of that song magic would at least offer me something different from the norm. And while there were some nice musical elements, it felt mostly instrumental with a splash of tap dancing, I'd almost hesitate to call this one a musical. So that may be my own expectations being improperly calibrated and/or my rube-ness showing, as I imagine there were callbacks on callbacks to the Fred Astaire's and such of yesteryear. I was just ready to rock and roll with an award winning musical. And it didn't feel like much of a musical somehow.

I do believe I understand why they won their awards with this one. Technical production was excellent. And if you're a Hollywood person, the pull of this romantic tale would likely be quite irresistible. But I wasn't into it.

¶