Pokematic Reviews La La Land

Oh the award winning La La Land, almost the best picture but no.

If it's not a good game or catholic...who do you call?...why Pokematic "hi."

Before I get into this, I need to start by saying "I'm not a big fan of musicals." I don't have anything against them; I was in the pit for 42nd Street and really enjoyed Wicked as well as The Music Man. I'm just not a big connoisseur of them like I am with say, animated or super hero films. However, La La Land really got my attention when it won all those awards, and almost won best picture. So as an "internet critic" and fan of good films, I felt like I had to see it. Well, after renting it at my local video store (yes I still have one), I feel like I have to tell you about how great it is.

Right off the bat, I need to say that the story and characters are kind of, meh. The story is a 2 parter, where the first half is a falling in love plot and the second half is a chase your dreams plot. Emma Stone is an actress who's looking for her big break and Ryan Gosling is a jazz musician who wants to make it as a traditional jazz musician who doesn't want to have jazz get all synthesized and what not. The first half is rather predictable and the second half is kind of boring. I don't want to "spoil" act 1, but, predictable. Draw your own conclusion. Act 2 just kind of jumps around between Ryan and Emma trying to chase their dreams, while also trying to get a steady pay check (starving artist and all). I can see why the academy would love it, since they probably lived it. It's not that it's "bad," just not really on the level of "Oscar."

As for the characters, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone just aren't that interesting. As I said earlier, Emma is an actress looking for her big break and Ryan wants to make it as a traditional jazz musician. Emma is a barista at a coffee shop and has some stage fright, and Ryan does small gigs. I won't go into their adventures in act 2, but it's nothing to really write home about. I gotta say, I never really found myself caring for these characters.

But don't turn away now, because what this movie lacks in story telling, it MORE than makes up for in technical elements, like the music. Now maybe it's just because I don't watch a lot of musicals, but for a "musical," there wasn't a lot of music. I mean, there was a score and what not, but there was only like 2 or 3 songs that the actors sang with "musical logic" (music comes out of nowhere, actors start singing, random strangers join in, etc.) Not that I'm "complaining" necessarily, I just expected more than your typical Disney animated movie. But those musical numbers are great. Like, top top notch, with great choreography and great singing. Ryan and Emma are REALLY talented when it comes to singing and dancing. But what REALLY stands out is the tap ballet number, where Emma and Ryan fall in love as they tap dance to a song that tells how they fell in love with a single continuous shot. It was REALLY impressive. I knew both of them were talented actors, but I never knew they could sing and dance. Which, back to the "acting," is impressive. Sure, both of them are probably playing "themselves at one point in their career," but it's still pretty great acting, mixed in with singing, dancing, and in Ryan's case, piano playing.

Next I need to talk about the costumes. Normally when watching movies, I don't really notice the costumes. They're just kind of "there," if you catch my drift. With this one however, I just had to notice them. Everyone wears bright colors. Emma wears bight colored dresses and Ryan wears bright colored suits. Both actors wear costumes that make them look really good and capture the feeling they're going for. It's really good. Everyone else wears good costumes too, but it's Emma and Ryan that really stand out.

Now there's the set design. You might think it would be kind of "basic" since they're just in a city, but you'd be wrong. Yes, there's some simple restaurant settings, and other slightly impressive jazz club and stage performance sets, but there's something "different" about the sets when they do musical numbers. When they do musical numbers, the sets become, less realistic, in a good way. During musical numbers, the sets look a bit like stage sets, like it's a stage play (except for the opening song, that's just a shut down free way). This really takes me back to my days in theater (emphasis on DAYS, I didn't do it very long), and I can tell that's the feeling they want to evoke. OK, maybe not nostalgic feels about spending hours at the high school working on the show, but it's definitely going for a theater feeling. And I think that's a very interesting feeling to evoke. Like, this is a multi-million dollar production with A-list actors, and they're dancing on a set that looks like it's from a college production. I love it.

Before I get into the spoiler end scene, I need to talk about the camera work. It's great. There are 2 very different types of camera work goring on; 1 for the talking and 1 for the music. With the talking, it's your typical "steady camera" with some quick change cuts. There are some scenes with a somewhat more dynamic camera, but it's still pretty static with jump cuts. When it's a musical number, the camera is more flowing and dynamic, with more continuous shots. They aren't single shots like with birdman (which also had Emma in it), but they are more continuous and flowing. This just really exemplifies the talent of Ryan and Emma, as they will do full shots and any actor will tell you that single shots are super hard to do. Granted, I'm a novice, but it's just a fact that it's easier to just do a 2nd 5-second take and try again. With shots that last for minutes, those are significantly harder to do as 1 screw up near the end means having to redo everything.

Now here's the spoiler in the final scene I want to talk about. Skip this paragraph if you don't want it spoiled, but the ending scene is so interested I just need to talk about it. OK, spoiler now. As you may or may not know (depending on how you handled my spoiler warning), Emma and Ryan don't get together in the end. That was unexpected. Like, I expected them to get together, because predictable, and how we see them in their lives apart. Then there's that imaginary kiss, where we get the "what would have been" montage, and boy was it creative. It's all "stage musical" set, with them dancing from set to set. It's also a "what could have been had they been more supportive of each other." Oh was it amazing seeing this "what could have been" story. It hits pretty much all the same notes of act 2, except there isn't the tension between them due to unsportiveness, that ultimately leads to major happiness. Then it goes back to real life, where they're still happy, just happy alone.

OK, spoilers over. This is a great movie. I'm not sure I'd necessarily recommend this to someone who doesn't know film critique, since it's rather bland from a conventional story telling perspective. However, from a technical stand point, it's amazing with a high recommendation. If you are or were a film student, or are/were a theater kid, you will appreciate this film. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.