La La Land (2016) Movie Review - A Fairytale set in Los Angeles

La La Land shows you the window from ‘Casablanca’ where Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman shot an iconic scene; it also shows the inside of the Griffith observatory from ‘Rebel without a cause’ and gracefully imitates ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ a number of times while constantly dropping little random props from the many classics Hollywood has produced in its glory days of the 40s and 50s. La La Land, from the get-go, maintains that it is not just about an aspiring actress and a struggling jazz pianist. It is also about the craft, the music scene, the cinema, and the city that shelters the craft, the city that has seen nobodys become somebody. La La Land is about Los Angeles.

Whether it was Damien Chazelle’s first film ‘Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench’ or his 2014 masterpiece ‘Whiplash,’ it was always evident that he had a thing for Jazz. Only with La La Land did he make the point further evident that it is not just a fling but a fully-fledged romantic affair with Jazz. He would go any distance to savor his passion for it. La La Land is his 3rd film about Jazz, this time set around a love story between a struggling pianist and an aspiring actress, both wanting to make it big doing what they genuinely love doing.

The film’s opening scene is a long shot that captures a traffic jam on an LA freeway. The idle people sitting in their cars suddenly start singing and dancing as if introducing us to the film itself. At the end of the opening scene, the music stops, things return to a normal state, and the camera slowly zeroes into our lead pair [Gosling and Stone], who are sitting in their own cars, totally unaffected and unmoved by all the musical hoopla happening minutes ago. In his vintage convertible, Sebastian honks relentlessly as Mia’s Prius blocks his way, and he gets a middle finger in return. That’s how Mia and Sebastian meet for the first time. The grumpiness of their behavior makes you wonder if the opening song really happened or if it was just a narrative device for the viewers to describe what we are getting into, a little introduction to La La Land itself.

La La Land is a traditional musical that follows the rules of a musical very sincerely, but it never becomes tedious enough for musical naysayers. One exciting aspect of La La Land was how it swings between looking like an old Hollywood classic and a 21st-century movie. The film is set in contemporary times, but since the songs and dance are so smooth and effortless, coupled with the kind of wardrobe that you end up asking yourself, “Isn’t it totally like the 50s?” but then for a couple of seconds, Chazelle drops in a shot of an iPhone or a laptop, only to bring you back to its reality and then before you realize, La La Land retakes its traditional form. It was very fulfilling to witness the transition. The way Chazelle dresses Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone briefly makes us recollect Cary Grant, Gregory Peck, or Audrey Hepburn from the 50s.

In contrast, seeing the rest of the cast in their regular clothes makes one realize, once again, that it’s, in fact, a contemporary setup. It’s almost like the film is playing peek-a-boo with you. It’s this ability to make you forget the time La La Land is set in purely magical.

La La Land truly reveals to you the power of music in a film. The music of La La Land is not just great music but a fantastic storytelling exercise in itself. Every song, every little tune that plays even in the distance, is crucial in the narrative and represents where the film stands at that point. For example, when Sebastian meets Mia after he is totally involved with his band scene and moves away from his dream to save classical jazz, there is the ‘City of Stars’ tune playing in the background, only this time, it is a fastened version of the song, which is not too pleasant to hear.

There are films that look beautiful because they have their hearts in the right place. La La Land isn’t just a film with a correctly placed heart; it’s the heart itself made with passionate music and passionate love, so much so that it’s impossible to see it as a film; it’s an experience you subject yourself to.