![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessI went to see La La Land (like a lot of people over the weekend – I’ve heard loads of people who don’t regularly go to the cinema say they want to see it.)
Out of the cut: I loved it. It's really good and it you have a shred of love for musicals, you'll love it too. Watching 'Singin' in the Rain' before it really worked for me.
I’d almost reached a point of trepidation, because I’d been looking forward to this for so long, never mind the excellent reviews and awards love. But phew, it lived up to the build-up, and by the end of the first number, I felt I could sink into a proper movie musical that revered what had come before in the mid twentieth century, but was a film about now, too. I think that in these days, it’s going to be even more appealing: gorgeous colours, singing and dancing, swoony romance. And substance!
The actors! No, they’re not the best singers (but they’re no Colin Firths either and I think we can be grateful for that), but Stone is brilliant. Mia’s string of auditions are gripping. I now have a thing about Ryan Gosling’s hands. (Thank you Graham Norton Show for the confirmation that he did all the piano playing.) Less shallowly, his comic timing! And yes, their chemistry is deployed beautifully here (been aware of it since Crazy Stupid Love, sat through Gangster Squad for it). But the film is about the characters’ identity as individuals as much as in the couple.
I could rave about the look of it, from the colours to the use of space as Mia and Seb wander through LA and Hollywood lots. But I won’t, I’ll just say that the way that the whole world falls away in some routines, and the whole world sings and dances along in others show that Chappelle is totally in control throughout, and, having just rewatched Singin’ in the Rain (worth doing) I love how this film is in conversation with it and other films.
I feel bad picking a favourite routine, but for once I’ll spare you my feelings about every single one. Suffice it to say I had some.
The final routine that reimagines their romance and goes on to what could have been in an alternate life where Seb, especially, made different choices, full of a smorgasboard of techniques, was all that had been gorgeous about the film, but also heartbreaking for the characters and audience. And earned. I felt sorry for Tom Everett Scott, playing a guy everyone automatically hated.
One thing I’ve been thinking of is how Mia and Seb play audience members so often, not surprising in a film about performers, but they do so more than the characters in SITR and how that links them to the movie-going audience watching throughout. It makes Seb’s failure to make it to Mia’s show resonate more.
I think I will try to see it again in the cinema. (Though that’s also a reaction to not going to see anything in the cinema twice last year.) And maybe Once More, With Feeling can be what I watch in preparation. And the fanvids!?!? Cannot wait for the fanvids.
Out of the cut: I loved it. It's really good and it you have a shred of love for musicals, you'll love it too. Watching 'Singin' in the Rain' before it really worked for me.
I’d almost reached a point of trepidation, because I’d been looking forward to this for so long, never mind the excellent reviews and awards love. But phew, it lived up to the build-up, and by the end of the first number, I felt I could sink into a proper movie musical that revered what had come before in the mid twentieth century, but was a film about now, too. I think that in these days, it’s going to be even more appealing: gorgeous colours, singing and dancing, swoony romance. And substance!
The actors! No, they’re not the best singers (but they’re no Colin Firths either and I think we can be grateful for that), but Stone is brilliant. Mia’s string of auditions are gripping. I now have a thing about Ryan Gosling’s hands. (Thank you Graham Norton Show for the confirmation that he did all the piano playing.) Less shallowly, his comic timing! And yes, their chemistry is deployed beautifully here (been aware of it since Crazy Stupid Love, sat through Gangster Squad for it). But the film is about the characters’ identity as individuals as much as in the couple.
I could rave about the look of it, from the colours to the use of space as Mia and Seb wander through LA and Hollywood lots. But I won’t, I’ll just say that the way that the whole world falls away in some routines, and the whole world sings and dances along in others show that Chappelle is totally in control throughout, and, having just rewatched Singin’ in the Rain (worth doing) I love how this film is in conversation with it and other films.
I feel bad picking a favourite routine, but for once I’ll spare you my feelings about every single one. Suffice it to say I had some.
The final routine that reimagines their romance and goes on to what could have been in an alternate life where Seb, especially, made different choices, full of a smorgasboard of techniques, was all that had been gorgeous about the film, but also heartbreaking for the characters and audience. And earned. I felt sorry for Tom Everett Scott, playing a guy everyone automatically hated.
One thing I’ve been thinking of is how Mia and Seb play audience members so often, not surprising in a film about performers, but they do so more than the characters in SITR and how that links them to the movie-going audience watching throughout. It makes Seb’s failure to make it to Mia’s show resonate more.
I think I will try to see it again in the cinema. (Though that’s also a reaction to not going to see anything in the cinema twice last year.) And maybe Once More, With Feeling can be what I watch in preparation. And the fanvids!?!? Cannot wait for the fanvids.
