Okay, before we start let me say a few things: this is just my opinion, film is art and as we know art is subjective; if you like this film that’s great and I definitely don’t want to spoil it for you. Also, I don’t hate musicals, in fact some of my earliest and fondest memories of the theatre have been musicals. And lastly, I don’t necessarily dislike this film just because everyone else seems to love it. There have been high rated films before I was first sceptic about but did like in the end (e.g. The Theory of Everything). Okay, so let’s get going about what I liked (yes of course there are also good things) and didn’t like.
What I liked about La La Land:
- The colours are amazing! The colours are bright and glowing and just overall very nicely arranged and combined. Both the sets and the costumes go together very well and you probably will find yourself thinking more than once “yeah, that looks really nice.”
- The costumes are pretty. Again, the colour scheme here is great and almost anything that is worn in this film is some sort of eye catcher or looks at least quite decent.
- This whole old school 50s vibe is a nice touch. It has this sort of nostalgia of classic (musical) films and gives the story an overall pleasant look and feeling that also fits the music.
- The cinematography and the way it’s filmed. The film knows how to present its aesthetics and its music. The editing and the transitions run smoothly and you don’t get this feeling of “okay, that was weird…”
- Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling do a decent job with the material they were given. Their dancing looks rather neat and there singing is not necessarily perfect but it doesn’t have to be, it fits the film quite well actually.
- The music and dancing was good. Not “wow!” but it was at least something you could watch and move your feet to. So, it could’ve been worse.
- The ending is nicely done and at least against this cliché happy ending.
Things I disliked about La La Land:
- The story is flat and almost nothing happens! If after 45 minutes I start checking my watch every ten minutes to see how long it’s already been: that’s not a good sign. Aspiring artists fall in love, break apart because of their different successes and meet again years later. It’s nothing new and they also don’t really add anything to make it seem new or more interesting.
- There are only two characters and both of them aren’t that interesting. I get that the story is about Mia and Seb, but couldn’t there have been at least one proper side character to have some more and different interaction? The characters of Mia and Seb are also nothing new in the world of film and, to me, there was nothing memorable about them. I found myself rooting for neither of them and honestly didn’t care if Mia was gonna get the role or not.
- The whole relationship felt forced and weird to me. Yeah, I get that this is a love story but at least show me how and why the characters fall for each other. The two meet, he’s rude. They meet again months later at a party, not really knowing each other and have a kind of sarcastic, slightly passive-aggressive conversation. They go home and dance on a hill and bum! they are in love. Like, what?! Then the whole “she doesn’t like jazz thing”. That was fine until they of course have to write that he shows her how great the music actually is and what she’s missing and that she eventually comes to like the music. That would have made a nice contrast, why could she simply not dislike jazz? And then they break up for, to me, very stupid reasons. Every relationship has its ups and downs, but they never really talk about things or apologise or message each other when things are about to go differently. So of course they have to break up! No!
- The music is okay but not “wow!”. It’s entertaining and yeah I tapped to the beat now and then but there was nothing memorable about the music. The only song that kinda stuck out to me was the concert song and even of that I couldn’t recall the melody right now. There isn’t this typical one song of a musical everyone keeps in mind and has heard of. The music is good, but not special.
- The lack of diversity which also goes hand in hand with the no-secondary-characters-thing. Sure, the very first song of the film is basically a boom of ethnic diversity and we see (apart from our two main characters of course) only black people in the jazz clubs. It’s like they thought that with that first song they could cover diversity for the whole film and then forget about it. I also find it a little weird that we have only black people in the jazz scenes as if no one else enjoys that music. And for the huge amount of black people we see in the jazz scene, there’s only one of them who gets focus for like five minutes (the music group guy) and then he’s somehow badly connotated. Some people also said that the film is racist because a white man safes the music of the black community (“white saviour” discussion). I wouldn’t necessarily agree with that though I have to say that something still felt off to me, though I can’t quite pinpoint it. Also, not to necessarily go with the stereotypes, but a musical film in 2016 and there’s not one queer character? Come on!
- The song the girls sing when they’re getting ready for the party is somehow very cringy to me and just weird and uncomfortable. For once, just once, when a character says “I’d rather stay home tonight, I don’t feel great” can friends please understand that instead of forcing them to go? And of course Mia turns around in the end and gets fancy to get to a party she doesn’t even really enjoy that much in the end. (Only to meet Sebastian)
Okay, so those are my main issues I have with La La Land. It’s not necessarily a bad film but to me it would definitely not deserve the Oscar for Best Picture. An Oscar worthy film has to be more than just look pretty and have some fancy music. Visually the film definitely deserves praise, no doubt about that and the costumes are gorgeous as well. But for me the pretty looks don’t make up for a boring story, flat characters and an overall mainstream appealing romance film. Like I said, if you liked this film that’s great. This is just my opinion on a film that I think is worth checking out but unworthy of all the fuss and Oscar praise.
