La La Land

(Written before the nominations.)

I am making an educated guess that La La Land will be nominated and getting an early start on my reviews. This one is all spoiler; don't read until you have seen it!

I watched this with a friend that told me the Saddest Story I had ever heard right before the viewing. I blame her for the fact that I didn't enjoy this movie as much as I expected. I shouldn't though! But I do.

The opening number just fell flat for me. It's purpose seems to be to say, "Hey! This will be a musical, ok? So get used to it!" And the song is everything that is annoying about musicals! I get the feeling that is an intentional choice but it made for a rough start and I was still thinking about that really Sad Story...

The rest of the musical numbers are directly tied to the main characters and are motivated by the story so I enjoyed all of those so much more.

Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are so enjoyable! They made me forget about the Sad Story for a really long time. They are cute and petite and pleasing and personable and you start to get into this sort of classical hollywood musical vibe. Creation is a process and a struggle and life isn't always just like the movies but love gets us through, right? Love is the antidote and with love, everything happens for a reason!

Not so fast. The ending is a gut punch of sorrow and regret and crap just never working out how it should. And there is the Sad Story my friend told me before and that is SO sad and now this is kind of sad too and I was liking all your damn music and then you just pulled the rug right out from under me. Are you kidding me? This story you made me invest in was the story of the one that got away? Bittersweet, but so heavy on the bitter!

Here's the thing. I guess I respect that? It took a musical's sunny outlook and tried to apply it to a more modern and realistic story? Except the characters themselves weren't that realistic. They kind of fell back on some pretty stereotypical tropes and plot points. So did it turn the genre on its head or not? It definitely set up expectations and then renegotiated on them. That should be a good surprise in film, right? But it felt kind of mean to reel me in like that. Also, there's that Sad Story on my mind. So. Sad.

Ok. Great musical numbers, cute performances, lovely lighting cues and transitions! It was a film I haven't seen before. All good. We just didn't part on the best of terms. I was crying at the end and my friend looked at me and said, "If this one made you sad, you better get ready! You haven't watched the sad ones yet!"

I'll just grab some Prozac and meet you here for my next review!