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There are many polarising beliefs about Los Angeles. At first glance, there’s the somewhat dilapidated, decrepit streets at which you drive along from LAX to your destination (WeHo, NoHo, Downtown, Venice Beach…); For every homeless person, there is a palatial street housing a full-time celebrity, the gap between the very rich and the poor is wide. Then there’s the sense of pretentiousness in those waitresses who serve you, the ones forever searching for a leg-up as they moonlight as struggling actresses. And then there’s the belief that musicals, for the most part, are a thing of Hollywood’s great past, because “they just don’t make them like they used to”. Polarising as all these expectations may seem, Damien Chazelle’s La La Land will make you dig a little deeper into LA’s urban fabric and see the city of angels and its characters in its true beautiful (sundrenched) light. You will fall in complete love with the city.
It’s a big risk to release a musical in 2016. And for the sweeter than sweet sugar rush you will undoubtedly experience as you watch this magnificent film, lets not sugar coat those first impressions: When megastar Ryan Gosling breaks out into tune with Emma Stone (a dance sequence in which was shot in just one take), it takes you a little second to acclimatise to the impromptu song. But within minutes, you will find yourself completely absorbed by the romanticism of the musical score (composed by Chazelle’s college room mate, Jordan Horowitz) and caught up in the chemistry of our favourite on-screen couple. (That is of course if you’re not first blindsided by the stunning backdrop that is LA’s night lights). Stone and Gosling practised this very dance scene at Griffith Park Observatory every weekend for six weeks and it’s here we realise Miles Teller (who worked with Chazelle on Whiplash and was originally cast as Gosling’s character in this film) just couldn’t replicate this same watchable interaction as the Stone/Gosling combo.
Set in contemporary metropolis LA, Gosling plays Seb, a jazz evangelist and pianist who isn’t the easiest person to warm to given his unhappy and poor existence. Getting paid to play Christmas songs and then getting fired for tinkering with their choruses to incorporate jazz improvisations, Seb meets Mia (Stone), an aspiring actress who, like the cliché, works in a coffee house in between auditions.
Both smitten with the idea of living out their big dreams of opening a jazz club and becoming a big-screen actress, the characters understand each other’s desperateness and dedication to their respective crafts. But as Seb’s career path takes a turn in favour of money, Mia questions his intent and fears he is selling out. There’s a poignant scene where Seb cooks Mia dinner in their apartment and every tension comes to a head. It’s here you realise that perhaps your first impression of the plotline was wrong; as clichéd as it may have appeared in the beginning, we get a very real understanding of the pressures and hardship of living and “making it” in this town today. And while the film is set against the sprawling backdrop of the rolling Hollywood Hills, never do we see a Hollywood sign, it’s not that obvious, Chazelle is more real than that.
La La Land’s location manager takes journalists on a tour of the film locations. This is Griffith Park Observatory in LA.
Gosling and Stone dancing inside the Observatory. They had to film the entire sequence on a Monday while the venue was closed to the public.
Whether you’re a fan of musicals or not – and I admit I was not – you must see this film. Gosling still has that same swagger he has in Crazy Stupid Love and Stone is the down-to-earth, quick-witted beauty we know her as. Stick it out past the Fame-like opening scene of characters singing and dancing in a traffic jam on an LA highway and if you haven’t fallen in love with Gosling and Stone by the Observatory scene, I give you permission to walk out. You won’t though, because the ending of this film will break you and bring a tear to those in the audience who have ever given brain time to the thought of what a life would look like with a past love. And if that’s not enough, the fact Gosling learnt to play the piano in three months will warrant the two hours and eight minutes of cinema time, promising to intermittently dazzle you at every jazz-club scene turn.
Westwood Village Theatre comes alight for the premiere of La La Land world premiere.
GRAZIA Entertainment Editor, Jessica, attends the 2016 La La Land premiere in Los Angeles. Dress by dressforanight.com.au
At the black-carpeted premiere at Westwood Village Theatre in Los Angeles, Chazelle greeted the audience, his film now in line for seven Golden Globes and will undoubtedly take home Oscars. “I moved to LA about nine years ago, I wanted to make movies. I came with zero credits and told people I wanted to make an original musical and I had my college room mate write all the music. That gets a lot of blank stares in this town,” Chazelle says to wild applause. “I want to thank the crew who came together to make what seemed like on any given day the impossible possible. A musical is nothing without its performers and this movie took some very brave performers, I want to thank the entire ensemble and I want to bring out two people who like me, moved to LA many years ago wanting to make movies. I have a sneaking suspicion they will have a future in this business. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling.”
Stone, poised and somewhat a little uncharacteristically shy, addressed the audience. “Thank you for coming tonight. It was such an honour to be part of this film and we had such an incredible time making it that I was positive it was going to be a complete disaster. And it wasn’t awful in the end! It’s something I’m incredibly proud to be a part!” she said.
Credit: Getty Images
But perhaps Gosling said it best. For all the aforementioned polarising things about LA and Hollywood musicals, this film, according to him, is a welcomed albeit unusual product of its time. “I was told not to say anything so now I’m in an interesting position,” he began. “I thought the ship had sailed on making an old fashioned Hollywood musical, I thought I would never get the opportunity to be a part of something like that. I think we all feel very grateful to Damien for making that happen.”
Critics across the world have given this film five stars. The real test will be with audiences like yourself. At first glance, it may not be a movie for you. But we all know better than to take something at face value. For those who’ve travelled to LA, you know there is more than meets the airport-to-hotel surface. And this film is not only evidence of that but that musicals in 2016 really can be brilliant.
La La Land is in Australian cinemas on Boxing Day, December 26.
Special thanks to Discover LA. Visit Los Angeles here.
Win a double pass to see the film here
