la la land film essay

Musicals made me a romantic. They taught me that some emotion is so powerful that it can’t be put into mere words—it must be sung. Some love is so overwhelming that you just have to move your feet. With a family that loved classic films, I remember being awed by Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire , thinking they were as cool as anyone in movie history. Characters in musicals not only understood love differently than those in traditional films but they turned that understanding into art—dancing, singing and transcending mere dialogue to become something greater, something purer, something closer to true romance.

We’ve had some musicals since the era of Rogers & Astaire, but few that have tried to recapture that sense of fluid, magical thinking in which characters communicate with their bodies as much, maybe even more, than they do with their voices. One of many remarkable things about Damien Chazelle ’s “La La Land” is how much energy and time it devotes to movement and music, not just lyrics. The modern movie musicals, so often based on Broadway shows, have focused heavily on songs that further plot. In Chazelle’s vision, choreography matters and a simple piano refrain can have more power than a lyric. This is a beautiful film about love and dreams, and how the two impact each other. Los Angeles is filled with dreamers, and sometimes it takes a partner to make your dream come true.

“La La Land” opens with a bit of a fake-out in that it’s a large ensemble number of a variety that we won’t really see again in the movie. Cars are stuck in the notoriously awful L.A. traffic when the drivers decide to break into song called “Another Day of Sun”—a bit about how each day brings new hope for these young wannabe artists—jumping out of the cars and dancing on the freeway. Instantly, Chazelle’s direction and the dance choreography feels different. Here, and throughout the film, he works in long, unbroken takes. You can not only see the dance moves, but you can see the dancer’s entire body when he or she performs them. And after the chorus-like introduction to a city of dreamers, we meet two such sun-gazers: pianist Sebastian ( Ryan Gosling ) and actress Mia ( Emma Stone ). Like any good musical, the two have a few false starts and playfully mock each other’s flaws in their first scenes. But we know where this is headed and Gosling & Stone have the chemistry to make us long for them to get together.

The first major centerpiece scene is a long walk between Sebastian and Mia as the sun is setting over the Hollywood Hills. They start to see similarities in one another. Mia is tired of going on worthless auditions, ones in which the producer doesn’t even look up from their phone. Sebastian holds on to an ideal version of jazz, wanting to open his own club instead of selling out and playing greatest hits for tourists. And Sebastian and Mia have a clear, instant attraction. So, even as they sing about how they’re not really a couple, and how this gorgeous night is wasted because they’re not with their true partners, their bodies tell another story with a fantastically choreographed dance number. Stone and Gosling aren’t natural singers or dancers, but they bring so much character and commitment to every movement that it doesn’t matter. They’re fluid, engaged and mesmerizing. We watch them fall in love through dance.

Of course, it helps that Gosling and Stone have the kind of star power that made so many of those classic era musicals memorable. He’s smooth and charismatic; she’s clever and beautiful. The phrase has lost most of its meaning, but these are movie stars . And, of course, they’re more than capable when “La La Land” demands greater depth, finding characters so rich that the movie would work without the music. It’s a story of artistic passion, and how easy it is to get derailed from your dream. Sometimes it takes another person to push you back on to the tracks to find it again. Gosling and Stone get these characters, finding grace in their movement but emotional depth in their arcs; Stone has never been better.

“La La Land” also exists as a very conscious ode to the allure of classic Hollywood. The pair goes to see “ Rebel Without a Cause ” (ending in one of the most magical scenes in years) and films like “ Casablanca ” and “Bringing Up Baby” are name-dropped. We have seen dozens of films that try to capture the allure of Hollywood, often with the cynical viewpoint that it will chew you up and spit you out, but Chazelle’s vision feels unique. It pays homage to musicals like “Singin’ in the Rain” and Jacques Demy’s “ The Umbrellas of Cherbourg ” without every directly mimicking them.  

It’s easy to let the world get you down sometimes, especially in a year like this one. It’s easy to think that dreams don’t come true, and that love only exists in movies. “La La Land” serves to remind us that movies can still be magical, and they can still provide the channel for us to see magic in the world around us. It’s not so much another day in the sun, as the characters sing in that opening number, but the dreams of the night before, the ones we wake up and try to fulfill, that keep us dancing.

This review was originally published on September 14, 2016 as a part of our TIFF coverage.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

• Emma Stone as Mia
• Ryan Gosling as Sebastian
• John Legend as Keith
• Rosemarie DeWitt as Laura
• J.K. Simmons as Bill
• Damien Chazelle
• Justin Hurwitz

Cinematographer

• Linus Sandgren

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Film Review: ‘La La Land’

In his first film since 'Whiplash,' Damien Chazelle stages a lavish song-and-dance musical that dares to swoon the old-fashioned way, with Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone as L.A. dreamers.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

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There was a moment back in the 1970s, sometime before “Grease” came out, when the image of people bursting into song and dance in the middle of a motion picture wasn’t simply corny and antiquated; it had come to seem downright strange. Not any more. Our era is immersed in retro musical culture, and it has been for a while — from the visionary postmodern pop swoon of “Moulin Rouge!” to the online resurgence of music video to the high-camp a cappella sincerity of “Glee” and the “Pitch Perfect” films. So what does it take to make a musical today look unabashedly exotic?

Damien Chazelle ’s “ La La Land ,” which opened the Venice Film Festival on a voluptuous high note of retro glamour and style, is the most audacious big-screen musical in a long time, and — irony of ironies — that’s because it’s the most traditional. In his splashy, impassioned, shoot-the-moon third feature, Chazelle, the 31-year-old writer-director of “Whiplash,” pays virtuoso homage to the look and mood and stylized trappings of the Hollywood musicals of the ’40s and, especially, the ’50s (glorious soundstage spectacles of star-spangled rapture), with added shades of Jacques Demy and “New York, New York.” A lot of people still find old musicals corny or think (mistakenly) that they’re quaint. Yet the form remains stubbornly alive in the bones of our culture. That’s why it feels so right, in “La La Land,” to see a daring filmmaker go whole hog in re-creating a lavish studio-system musical, replete with starry nights and street lamps lighting up the innocence of soft-shoe romance, and two people who were meant for each other literally dancing on air.

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“La La Land” is set in contemporary Los Angeles, but its heart and soul are rooted in the past, and so are its characters: Sebastian ( Ryan Gosling ), a sleek jazz pianist in silk ties who’s a cranky purist about what he listens to, what he plays, and where he plays it, and Mia ( Emma Stone ), an aspiring actress and playwright who’s deep into the magic of the old movie stars, though she’s a tad less obsessive about her fixation. She works as a barista on the Warner Bros. lot and is always cutting out of work to get to auditions; if one of them ever resulted in her landing an acting job, she’d probably be ecstatic no matter what it was. These two meet, scuffle, and fall in love, and they do it through a series of song-and-dance numbers, composed by Justin Hurwitz (the lyrics are by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul), that are tenderly shocking in their catchy anachronistic beauty. The film’s score is such a melodious achievement that there are moments it evokes the bittersweet majesty of George Gershwin.

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The movie opens with one of the most extraordinary sequences in years: a musical number, set in the middle of a morning drive-time traffic jam along a vast stretch of L.A. freeway, that is all done in one shot, in the look-ma-no-hands! tradition of the famous openings of “Touch of Evil” or “The Player.” Chazelle’s camera glides and twirls with astonishing choreographic intricacy among the passengers on their way to work, as they emerge, one by one, from their cars and flip and dance on top of them, fusing into the chorus of a song called “Another Day of Sun.” Cinematically, the sequence makes the impossible look easy, and it suggests a “gotta see” factor that could help to turn “La La Land” into a prestige novelty hit. In its way, though, the sequence, with its giddy optimism, sets up certain emotional expectations. The movie has a lot of time to get moodier, and it ultimately does. Yet Chazelle, by staging this number with so much seductive pizazz, taps our hunger to return to — and stay inside — an enchanted romantic universe.

Sebastian and Mia are among the freeway drivers, and they’re introduced, after a flurry of angry horn honks, by flipping each other the bird, at which point the film travels into Mia’s life: her bedroom with its posters of “Lilies of the Field” and “The Black Cat,” her three glam roommates, and a party that leads to another all-in-one-take musical number (or close enough to it — there are a couple of cuts). Then, finally, Mia is standing there, a little desolate, on the street, and she hears a lonely piano and heads into the bar the music is coming from, and the whole image fades to darkness (except for her), as she lays her eyes on… him. Across a crowded room. A stranger playing the piano. Except that the look on her face tells you he’s no stranger at all. She’s not just staring — she’s falling. That’s the sublimity of Old Hollywood, where we believed that it could happen just like this.

When Sebastian gets up from the piano, he brushes by Mia, nearly hitting her (we learn why later on), and the film then rotates into his life, and we see how deliciously parallel the two are: old-school dreamers trapped in a world of entertainment commerce that’s designed to crush the life out of you. They reunite at a pool party, where he’s playing synth-keyboards in a tacky ’80s cover band. He’s been fired from the club (by J.K. Simmons, winkingly reprising the hanging-judge hostility of his Oscar-winning performance in “Whiplash”), and Mia hasn’t forgiven him for literally giving her the cold shoulder. But that means they’re ready for that old-time Hollywood religion, when two lucky people get to discover what the audience already knows: that the reason they “don’t like” each other is that they already love each other. They just need to figure it out.

The two take a stroll, over to a view of L.A.’s glittering carpet of lights that merges into the pastel twilight, and Chazelle stages a gorgeous scene in which they sit, and talk, and start dancing, just the way actors did on sets in the 1950s. The sheer beauty of the staging creates a calm logic of devotion. These two belong together because Gosling, his slight edge of malice dipped in honey, and Stone, her vivacity cut by a pensive awareness, create a teasing erotic connection, but mostly they belong together because… they dance like this. That’s called the poetry of the 20th century, and the reverent way that Chazelle and his two actors revive it is a delicate and moving thing. Gosling and Stone click together as effervescently as they did in “Crazy, Stupid, Love.” At the Griffith Observatory, where Sebastian and Mia go after having just seen it in “Rebel Without a Cause,” they enter the planetarium and are swept up into the stars, and it’s a transcendently goofy, gorgeously blissed-out moment.

The movie needs a complication, of course, and once Sebastian and Mia become a couple, it gets one, in the form of a question: How are either of these people going to make good on their dream? Sebastian wants to open a club, but the kind of music he obsesses over is ripe for a museum. Almost no one is going to shell out to hear it. But it’s not until he lands a paycheck gig with his old musician colleague, played by a charmingly no-nonsense John Legend, that he starts to listen to reason. He’s got to earn a living, and he knows it, so he submits to being part of a commercial pop-jazz band in which he stands in front of screaming crowds and plays funk synthesizer lines that sound just a little bit greasy.

“La La Land” starts as a twinkly fantasy of sophisticated innocence, cut with a touch of modern L.A. sass (especially in Mia’s casually cruel audition scenes). In its second half, though, the film gives itself over to a slightly murky version of the art-vs.-commerce, how-to-hold-onto-your-dream theme. Should Sebastian even be in this band? Oddly, it’s Mia who suddenly says that he shouldn’t (she’s bothered by his relentless touring schedule), and the two get into a fight about it. It’s portrayed as one of those things that just happens between a couple, but given that Sebastian was trying to step up and grow up, on some basic level it’s a little hard to buy that Mia is now the purist. But then, it turns out that her own purity is going to take her far. She just needs a little prodding. Emma Stone, in a luminous performance, is by turns plucky, furious, hopeful, distraught, and devoted, and when she sings the wistful ballad “Audition (The Fools Who Dream),” she is every inch a star.

As their fortunes start to seesaw, the film acquires some of the stormy turbulence of “A Star Is Born,” as well as glimmers of the doubt and disconnection of “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.” All of which can feel just a bit discordant. Chazelle wants to make a musical that celebrates the classic Hollywood vision of love as spiritual perfection. But he also wants to make an age-of-alienation love story that undercuts the old simplicities. He has the right to do both; that’s what “Moulin Rouge!” did. But if Chazelle sticks to the bittersweet truth of the story he’s telling, there’s a part of you that wants to see him shoot the works, to make good on that opening sequence by topping it. “La La Land” isn’t a masterpiece (and on some level it wants to be). Yet it’s an elating ramble of a movie, ardent and full of feeling, passionate but also exquisitely controlled. It winds up swimming in melancholy, yet its most convincing pleasures are the moments when it lifts the audience into a state of old-movie exaltation, leading us to think, “What a glorious feeling. I’m happy again.”

Reviewed at Venice Film Festival, Sept. 1, 2016. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 128 Min.

• Production: A Lionsgate release of a Summit Entertainment, Gilbert Films, Imposter Pictures, Marc Platt production. Produced by Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz, Marc Platt, Gary Gilbert.
• Crew: Director, screenplay: Damien Chazelle. Camera (color, widescreen): Linus Sandgren. Editor: Tom Cross.
• With: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend, Rosemarie DeWitt, J.K. Simmons, Finn Wittrock, Meagan Fay.

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by Damien Chazelle

La la land study guide.

Reflecting on the genesis of La La Land , writer and director Damien Chazelle said, "I guess you write what you know...There is something to be said for having even unrealistic dreams. Even if the dreams don’t come true—that to me is what’s beautiful about Los Angeles. It’s full of these people who have moved there to chase these dreams. A lot of those people are told by people around them that they’re crazy, or that they’re living in la la land. I wanted to make a movie that saluted them a little bit, and that kind of unrealistic state of mind.”

Chazelle wrote La La Land in 2010, after having made the jazz musical film Guy and Madeleine on a Park Bench in 2009. At that time, no studio was willing to finance the movie, since Chazelle and Harvard friend Hurwitz, who wrote the score, were basically unknown and unproven, and Chazelle could not self-finance it. Frustrated, Chazelle decided to write Whiplash, which he felt might be less of a risky investment. After Whiplash's critical and commercial success, Chazelle made a deal with Summit Entertainment to produce and distribute La La Land . It wasn't until 2015 that the movie finally got the green light.

Given the long journey to our screens, it's unsurprising that La La Land went through various stages of evolution. Rumor has it that Chazelle initially wanted Miles Teller (the star of Whiplash ) and Emma Watson to star, but once Summit was on board, Chazelle approached Stone and Gosling whose chemistry had been tried and tested in Crazy, Stupid Love and Gangster Squad. “They’re sort of timeless in the sense that you can buy them as a 1940s sort of old movie, old Hollywood pairing—like a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, or a Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy,” says Chazelle of Stone and Gosling. “Yet at the same time, they feel, at least to me, completely contemporary. They have a way of grounding everything that they do in a very believable way. Once we were able to cast them in the film, it’s like the whole thing sort of woke up.”

The actors went through a three-month intensive rehearsal process before shooting. They would all be together in a huge production office with Gosling practicing piano in one room and Stone learning dance moves in another. It was crucial that they had this time, as shooting the film on seventy different locations was fast moving and grueling, and with several shots filmed in one take, it was necessary for them to be totally prepared. Chazelle was hugely influenced by classic Hollywood movies, and pays homage to them in the film. In fact, he held screenings for the whole company of the classic movies that had inspired and influenced La La Land .

At the heart of the film is a story about love—a love that, though unsustainable, is real and important and strong. Mia and Sebastian both support each others' dreams and are able to realize them because of each other. “I am very moved by the idea that you can meet someone in your life who transforms you and sets you onto a path that is going to finally enable you to be the person you always dreamed of being, but ultimately, you need to go on that path alone,” says Chazelle. “You can have a union that winds up dictating the rest of your life but doesn’t last the rest of your life. I find that incredibly beautiful and heartbreaking and wondrous. At its soul, I wanted this movie to be about that.” It is significant therefore that in the final cut of the movie, Chazelle's ex-wife Jasmine McGlade is given an Executive Producer credit. The pair were at Harvard together, married in 2010 and divorced in 2014 and the added credit must be a tribute to the support and influence of their relationship.

The ending of the film has sparked discussions about the moral of the story, some thinking that it demonstrates that you can't have it all—the dream and the romance. As with Whiplash, La La Land never instructs its viewer how to feel. Mia's life is depicted as happy at the end of the film: she lives in a lovely home with a loving husband and baby daughter and she has realized her aspirations. The film is much too complex to have a single moral; it simply celebrates the loves that have gone before and how important the people on your journey are. There's nostalgia and sadness for Mia and Sebastian when they meet that last time at the jazz club, of course, but that doesn't negate the joys they experience in their own lives now that they are apart.

“To me, it was important to make a movie about dreamers, about people who have these giant dreams that drive them, that bring them together, but also tear them apart. La La Land is a very different movie from Whiplash in many ways. But they both deal with something that's really personal to me: How do you balance life and art? How do you balance reality and dreams? And also, specifically, how do you balance your relationship to your art with your relationships with other people? With La La Land , I wanted to tell that story using music, song and dance. I think the musical as a genre is a great vehicle for expressing that balancing act between dreams and reality.” It is of course an incredibly affirming irony that a film about dreamers in LA, which wasn't produced for years due to the unproved track record of its creators (and dreamers), should do so well critically and commercially.

La La Land Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for La La Land is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Why didn’t Mia & Sebastian end up together?

I think the stress of trying to make it in Hollywood was just too much for their relationship. The pursuit of their individual dreams takes all their energies with nothing left for their relationship.

What is la la land Profound (symbol)

La La Land is a term representing unrealistic dreams. Reflecting on the genesis of La La Land , writer and director Damien Chazelle said, "I guess you write what you know...There is something to be said for having even unrealistic dreams. Even if...

2. What do Mia and Sebastian want from their lives in LA? What drives each of them to pursue their respective dreams? What does LA represent to them, and how do they experience the cit

An important theme in the film is the interconnection and larger patterns that shape life. Even though Mia and Sebastian are individuals with their own particular dreams, love, hopes and fears, there are greater patterns at work, and their lives...

Study Guide for La La Land

La La Land study guide contains a biography of director Damian Chazelle, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About La La Land
• La La Land Summary
• Character List
• Director's Influence

• Movie Review /
• Entertainment /

La La Land review: a gloriously earnest Singin' in the Rain for the 21st Century

This is a film that doesn't pull punches on any of its big, broad emotions.

By Tasha Robinson

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Full disclosure: it is just possible that La La Land is not for you. Damien Chazelle 's follow-up to his Oscar-winning breakout film Whiplash got such rapturous responses in its early festival releases that it started to sound like a perfect movie, capable of winning over even the worst curmudgeons. (Further proof: It won over the Washington D.C. and New York Film Critics collectives, which both named it the best film of 2016.) But the early screenings were largely for a select crowd of determined festivalgoers and industry professionals who've chosen careers in making, marketing, or just talking about the movies. In other words, the people who initially saw and loved La La Land , and hailed it as 2016's likely Best Picture frontrunner, are its target audience. It's openly aimed at cinephiles who recognize the overt references to Singin' in the Rain, West Side Story , and The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg. It's meant for viewers who feel a little internal flutter when characters stroll across a studio backlot, surrounded by the accoutrements of moviemaking, then burst into song and dance.

Not everyone loves musicals, though, and La La Land won't seduce anyone who thinks The Sound of Music is grotesquely corny, or that Umbrellas of Cherbourg is some dusty old foreign film where nothing much happens. But for people who do love those movies, and the unselfconsciously joyous romantic ideals they represent, La La Land is a glorious feast for the eyes and the soul. Its complete lack of restraint, cynicism, or self-consciousness invites viewers to drop their own reservations and just feel the big, broad emotions as they're played out on-screen, through memorable songs and elaborate fantasy sequences.

The players are jazz pianist Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and barista-slash-actress Mia (Emma Stone), two LA residents who are past ready for some kind of big break. Sebastian is a principled jazz fan who rages at any hint of compromise, and whose latest restaurant gig, dutifully plinking out aural-wallpaper Christmas carols in a classy restaurant, doesn't last long. (He's working for an equally uncompromising owner played by Whiplash Oscar-winner J.K. Simmons, in a wink-wink cameo.) But Sebastian dreams of buying a famous historical jazz club, and re-creating its glory days. Mia, meanwhile, works at a canteen on the Warner Bros. lot, dutifully enduring awful auditions and endless self-doubts.

Together, they go through all the usual rom-com motions: they meet cute, exasperate each other, and express it all with mutual needling and snappy banter. But all the biggest conflicts in a musical eventually turn into dancing, and from dancing, Sebastian and Mia segue into dating. Soon, Mia's practicality pushes Sebastian into touring with a hugely popular band, playing music he hates for a bandleader (John Legend) he considers a sellout. Meanwhile, Sebastian's reckless enthusiasm bolsters Mia into quitting her job to write and stage her own one-woman play, regardless of the consequences. Both of them are living out a certain form of the artistic dream — she's following her muse without seeking anyone else's approval, he's got a lucrative and steady gig, where doting audiences cheer for him every night. But neither of them are happy, because they're embracing each other's idea of success, at the expense of their own.

The choreography is one of the film's biggest assets

La La Land 's first act sets up Mia and Sebastian's relationship with a terrific mixture of energy and gravity, as they banter, flirt, and dance through one classically staged pas de deux after another. (Choreographer Mandy Moore has been a regular contributor on competition shows like Dancing With The Stars and So You Think You Can Dance , and her mastery of tight, precision Astaire-and-Rogers coordinated movement is one of the film's biggest assets.) The story falters a bit after that, rushing some sequences, and leaping forward in time in a way that completely changes the film's tone and tempo. To Chazelle's credit, he resists the most obvious story beats, and his unconventional story sets up a powerhouse final sequence that's designed to wring maximum tears out of the audience, while letting them appreciate the cunning construction. Like Whiplash , La La Land is forceful and uncompromising about the emotions it wants viewers to feel. And like Whiplash , it uses music as an endlessly effective weapon against any possible resistance.

It also uses self-aware humor, a vivid candy-colored palette, and a series of iconic LA settings, from the Angels Flight funicular to Griffith Observatory, where Rebel Without A Cause set its most famous sequence. Chazelle is open about his references: in one of the many approving nods to Old Hollywood, Sebastian and Mia watch Rebel in a theater before heading to the observatory. In their first dance, Sebastian even does a little whirl around a conveniently placed lamppost, in a callback to Singin' in the Rain . This is a movie of hat-tips, almost more of a meta-musical than an independent story.

But that, too, was inspired by Singin' in the Rain — which was parodying Even Older Hollywood, while maintaining a heavy dose of affection for it as a more innocent and enthusiastic era of movie magic. Both films sink deep into idealization and nostalgia. And both are full of in-jokes and references, but still endlessly earnest about emotions, and enthusiastic about the physicality of dance. La La Land is essentially this century's Singin' in the Rain , from the showy dance numbers to the vividly colored costumes to the cheeky humor.

The biggest difference is that Gosling and Stone largely lack the force of personality Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds brought to Singin' in the Rain . Their voices make them odd choices for a full-scale musical: Gosling's is gravelly and shy, and Stone's is mostly the kind of high, thready whisper that earned Helena Bonham Carter so much disdain in Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd . When it's finally time for Stone to belt, she belts, and it's a wonderful moment. The thematic reasons Chazelle held her back suddenly become clear. But too much of the film's runtime leaves her in whispery, understated mode. Still, the two of them have a terrific physical presence, and they handle the demands of the dance well enough to erase uncertainty about their uncertain voices.

The giddy energy of a director coming back from a major success

It remains to be seen whether La La Land can withstand the test of time, the way its inspirations have. But Chazelle suggests he isn't interested in history so much as living in the moment, and creating something that says what he wants to say about the specific uplift of classic Hollywood musicals. The craft of La La Land is impeccable, from the energetically active camera to the staging and production design that re-creates the past without feeling dated. But there's a reckless cockiness to the production as well, an attitude that says "The audience is on our side here. We'll copy whatever we want, be as broad and unsubtle as we want, and skip ahead at random, to whatever part of the story interests us most." This is the giddy energy of a director coming back from a major success, and seizing on the freedom to play with whatever toys he wants.

There's a flippant exchange partway through La La Land where Mia worries about her one-woman show: "It feels really nostalgic to me." "That's the point," Sebastian tells her. "Are people going to like it?" she asks. And he gives her a manic grin and says "Fuck 'em." They're obviously talking more about Chazelle's production than Mia's, and in this moment, Chazelle is reminding the audience that he doesn't really care if some people in the theater aren't on board. His stars are dancing through a familiar playground, and it's enough that anyone who remembers these moves and these feelings is invited to come along for the ride.

This review originally appeared on September 14, 2016 in conjunction with the film's screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival. It has been republished to coincide with the film's wide theatrical opening.

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Introduction

• Published: August 2024
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The introduction presents La La Land and its place in contemporary culture. It describes the debacle at the 2017 Oscars, when La La Land was mistakenly announced as the Best Picture winner, and suggests that the awkward mix-up was in many ways symbolic of the film’s broader cultural reception since its premiere. The film looked backward in some ways and forward in others, revealing much about the film musical genre’s enduring and evolving place in American culture. The introduction additionally presents the overall scope and argument of the book, briefly describes the plot and musical numbers, and outlines the major themes in the chapters that will follow.

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Love ‘La La Land’? Hate It? So Do We

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Our Culture Department is a staff divided. It’s not what you think — it’s “La La Land.”

We talk movies all the time, but for some reason Emma Stone (as Mia, aspiring actress) and Ryan Gosling (Sebastian, aspiring jazz pianist), singing and dancing about love and career, have provoked passionate arguments. Some of us love “La La Land”; some of us really hate it.

So as the Oscars near (“La La Land” is the front-runner ), we’re putting our arguments to you. Read the debate, and in the comments tell us where you stand.

It’s Transporting

“La La Land” is a visual poem and a timely escape from all the tension and traffic and division in our lives. You don’t have to think much; you just watch it. The stars are lovely. The songs are catchy. And the camera lifts you right out of your seat to take you along for the ride. Oh, and that ending — it’s surprisingly perfect.

— Mike Abrams, Culture copy desk chief

What if instead of splitting up with Annie Hall and wrecking half a parking lot, Alvy Singer learned how to drive and took her up to Griffith Observatory? That was how “La La Land” struck me — a love letter to Los Angeles like the ones Woody Allen gave Manhattan , with fireworks popping over the cityscape (minus the Gershwin) and a romantic bench looking out on the Hollywood Hills instead of the Queensboro Bridge. I ♥ N.Y., but they made L.A. a ★.

— Dave Renard, assistant news editor

But It Doesn’t Understand Musicals

I grew up swinging around lampposts and stomping in puddles à la Gene Kelly in “Singin’ in the Rain.” I forgave Fred Astaire his talky rendition of songs like “Cheek to Cheek” because he was the epitome of effortless grace. Ryan Gosling is no Fred Astaire. For die-hard musical fans like me, “La La Land” disappoints. Yes, better a new Hollywood musical than no new Hollywood musical. But the high hopes raised by the inventive opening number are dashed by the weak delivery of its stars. Let’s face it, they can’t really sing or dance. And the novelty of seeing celebrities try to pull it off wears thin pretty fast. Couldn’t Emma Stone muster the vocal strength she showed onstage as Sally Bowles in the Roundabout’s “Cabaret”? Couldn’t the producers have cast a pair with real theater chops, like Sutton Foster and Colin Donnell , or Laura Benanti and Gavin Creel ? Too bad Broadway stars aren’t big box office.

— Robin Pogrebin, arts reporter

From the “Hamilton” juggernaut to fresh-sounding new musicals like “ Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 ” and “ Dear Evan Hansen ,” Broadway is doing a pretty killer job these days of innovating. But you wouldn’t know it by watching the reactionary “La La Land.” Considering the relevant, specific and (sometimes) challenging stories that are being told onstage — aided by accomplished and hummable scores — “La La Land” lags. Sure, the movie is a pleasant enough throwback. But if “La La Land” is any indication that movies are going to start taking cues from musicals again, here’s hoping that Hollywood catches up with what many musical theater fans have come to expect: A musical can be more than just a meet-cute song-and-dance escape; it can also be an opportunity to push the form forward.

— Erik Piepenburg, digital theater editor

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‘La La Land’ review: Singing through dreams and disappointments

La la land  heartbreakingly portrays the highs and lows of chasing dreams. though packaged as a high-energy feel-good musical, it contains poignant notes that make it great..

I didn't like La La Land when I watched it. Frankly, I was disappointed. I was even shining off a spot in my top ten movies of the year for it. I love musicals and grew going to see Broadway shows. Singin' In the Rain is one of my favorite movies of all time. Needless to say, I wanted to love this movie. So, when I walked out of the theater less than enthralled I was confused. I couldn't bring myself to give it a score because I was so sure I missed something. As the week trudged on, I told people how disappointed I was in the movie. I couldn't understand how it missed my expectations by so much.

However, then I realized that the tune stuck in my head all week were the opening notes from “Another Day of Sun,” the movie's opening number. So, I went on Spotify and played the soundtrack. I quickly realized how much I really loved the musical's first half. But I couldn't shake the feeling that the second half was a narrative misstep, even though the ending stuck with me. I gave the movie a score — I won't tell you it, but it's low — and carried on with my post- La La Land week. Then, I saw a tweet that had the Merriam-Webster definition of the term “La La Land”:

“A euphoric dreamlike state detached from the harsher realities of life.”

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I smacked myself on the head for my stupidity. I realized that I, in fact, missed something. Finally, I was able to give La La Land a proper score (spoiler: it's a lot higher than my initial one). But let's backtrack for a second. Damian Chazelle, who directed Whiplash, my favorite movie of 2014, set out to make a movie-musical that transported audiences back to the genre's heyday in the 40s and 50s. Though, he was careful to balance its timeless plot with the modern issues that face the artists of our generation.

La La Land tells the story of aspiring actress Mia ( Emma Stone ). She, like so many people, followed her dreams of stardom to Los Angeles. However, she finds that success isn't as easy to obtain as the movies say they are. We see her spend her time working at the Starbucks on the Warner Brothers' studio lot between auditions that often don't go well — the casting directors couldn't care less, she's just one of many of her “type”, someone walks in the room. However, her love for movies is what keeps her going.

On the other side of things, Sebastian ( Ryan Gosling ) has dreams of his own. He hopes to own a jazz club one day. His love of jazz runs deep. When someone tells him that they don't love jazz, like Mia, he sets out to make them appreciate it. However, he has his own problems. Mainly, as a character later in the movie says, jazz is dying… and he has no money. He spends his nights playing Christmas carols in a restaurant under the watchful eye of the owner ( J.K. Simmons ).

The movie begins with an absolutely enthralling opening number that takes place on a freeway in the middle of Los Angeles. Yes, an actual freeway. The song, “Another Day of Sun,” perfectly sums up both the disappointment and allure of chasing dreams in a town where everyone is doing the exact same. In one magnificent take, which may possibly one of the best of all time, Chazelle sets the time and place in LA with free runners, salsa dancers, and even a trick bicycle rider in this tightly choreographed number. I don't know how he was able to pull it off, but it is one of the most magnificent scenes committed to film this year.

As the film unfolds, we realize that Mia is still in the Honeymoon phase of living in LA. Every day is just another step towards her eventual ascension to the top. Sebastian, alternatively, believes that his true artistry is already there, but yet to be appreciated. When the two bump into each other — at first literally and then coincidentally throughout the movie — they are sure they're not falling for each other. This is told through “A Lovely Night,” a classic Rogers-Astaire tap dance routine. However, slowly they realize that they are, in fact, falling for each other.

The first half of the movie plays out like the musicals it's based on. However, key decisions elevate it to an even higher level. A bright primary color motif is used in the costuming throughout, which gives it a whimsical quality. That coupled with the cinematography that makes strong use of lighting and color, shows us this city where anything is possible that Mia sees. It almost feels like the movie has a rhythm all its own apart from what's happening on screen. Thanks to editor Tom Cross, who also cut Whiplash , La La Land moves at a lighting pace. That is until we get to Summer — the movie is split up into the four seasons.

Slowly encouraging each other, Mia and Sebastian start to make moves towards their dreams. Mia, tired of waiting for her perfect part to come, starts to write a one-woman show. Sebastian, looking to raise money for his club, joins a band fronted by former classmate Keith ( John Legend ). By the time we get to this point the musical scenes start to become few. The bright colors that flooded the costumes and sets fade away. On my first viewing, this is where the movie lost me. I was confused as to why this bright and romantic musical faded away before my eyes. However, this is why the definition of “La La Land” snapped me back to reality. This was completely by design.

The difference between the two parts is stark. However, it's essential for Chazelle to suggest that the dreamlike stupor that both Mia and Sebastian were in is gone. Reality sets in, and you know what they say about reality. As they attempt to be together and follow their respective dreams, they learn how trying balancing both is. It all comes to a head in an incredibly emotional scene that is done completely in close-up, which pushes the actors to the edge of their abilities.

It's the distinction that I missed. Until I read the definition of the term “La La Land” I thought that the movie just made a tonal misstep. In reality, it was a genius shift from a movie about a couple's passion for their crafts to one about alienation brought on by our generation's attitude of never truly doing enough. La La Land is a brilliant study of an entire generation that wants to do it all. We want to be happy and successful and doing what we love. However, La La Land portrays the sad realities.

As phenomenal as the craft is — nearly every shot, beat, and set is perfect — La La Land would be a lesser movie without Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling . Gosling, who I loved in The Nice Guys earlier this year, again proves his comedic ability. However, it's his interplay with Stone that makes him great here. He's there to support her. After all, at a certain point, this becomes her movie. But who is Ginger Rogers without Fred Astaire? Stone, on the other hand, gives one of the best performances of the year and makes it look easy. From perfect comedic timing to crushing the film's 11 o'clock number, she is an emotional powerhouse. She proves that she is one of the best actresses of our generation. Their partnership and chemistry makes you swoon and then breaks your heart.

La La Land isn't going to be for everyone. Some are going to be expecting a straight musical like I did or not completely buy the walk and talk sequences. However, the magic of the on-screen musical will hook you from the beginning. At its core, it's a romance for our generation. Passion, love, dreams, disappointments, and alienation are its themes. But it never tries to be bigger than it is. Like all the great romances, it starts with the central couple. Mia and Sebastian's love is one that they need at that time and place. However, like so many modern lovers, the timing never seems right. While La La Land is escapist entertainment for a good chunk, its greatest parts lie in the realities, while not harsh, that plague our dreams. But hey, here's to the fools who dream.

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Karl Delossantos

Hey, I'm Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven't yet seen represented. I'm also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.

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Analysis of the Film “La La Land” Poster Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

Denotation: definition and application, connotation: definition and application, index and symbols: definition and application, myth: definition and application, ideology: definition and application, incorporation of research/reading material within analysis.

In the film industry, writers and directors have a direct message they desire to pass to their audience. Thus, when creating the movie’s plot, they always consider their audience and how they will interpret the literature. A single poster can pass this message by using key semiotic concepts. This element will give an ideology of film through simple pictorial presentations. However, the presentation will vary from one individual to the other depending on their knowledge of the symbols used. This element, if well presented, will explain the whole movie and create an expectation for the audience before watching. Although movie producer use different key semiotic concepts to pass their message, the film La La Land uses this aspects in its poster to communicate its ideology.

The naming of the film La La Land (2016) is a denotation of the movie, giving a literal meaning to the movie. The movie’s title is named after the slang name for Los Angeles, California (De Luca Picione and Valsiner, 2017). Denotation is the use of the literal understanding of an aspect while giving names of titles. The city of Los Angeles, California, is known for its pleasure and best sceneries. However, in the film, it is presented as being out of touch with the reality of the actors.

The movie’s plot shows the main characters having a common desire to do what they love most. Therefore, they are risking many opportunities to increase their satisfaction. However, as they continue growing their careers, they are left in the reality of choosing between their career and love. Hence, the movie’s literal translation to Los Angeles presents the characters as out of touch with reality and having to choose between reality and fantasy.

An icon resembles its referent in semiotics, including pictures which are a graphic representation of something. The features might portray the exact item in reference or give a representation that can be directly associated with the subject (San-Martín, Delgado-Bolton and Vivanco, 2017). For example, in the movie poster for La La Land (2016), the icons portray images of the two lead actors in the film. The actors are close to each other, hinting at a relationship they exhibit in the film where they are lovers in the art setup. Further, they dance with the acts they perform in the movies regularly. Additionally, the poster picture is taken from the top of the building capturing the city of Los Angeles, California, the city in which the movie is based.

Connotation is the second interpretation of an act or objects different from its literal meaning. It is the opposite of denotation since it has or describes a hidden meaning represented by the object. For example, the title of the film La La Land is secondary and can be interpreted as Los Angeles, California. However, the city is known to house actors and many businesses making it bigger. With many activities happening in the town, the participants are growing their careers, which affects their relationships. Additionally, the title of the movie can be translated as out of touch with reality. However, the impression turns out to be false because the actors are subjected to reality where they must make tough life decisions.

Movies do not present messages directly to their viewer in their posters; thus, they use indexes and symbols to hide meaning. The approach will raise curiosity among the subscribers who plan to watch the film to understand the entire meaning (Bowcher, 2018). Using an index will create a connection between the signifier and the signified subject, while symbols represent a hidden meaning to a given act.

The film La La Land uses a spotlight on its poster, which shows perspective and zooms in, focusing on one subject. The spotlight is further depicted in the movie when Mia, the lead actress, and Sebastian first meet. The spotlight focuses on Sebastian creating the illusion that Mia could only see her and did not care about the rest of the people in the hall. Additionally, the color blue on the poster symbolizes classical Hollywood that many aspiring actors dream of achieving, just like the lead characters are working towards achieving their career goals.

Movies could present myths in their plot to pass a particular message to the audience. However, the message could be distorted or invalid, thus requiring audience contribution and interpretation. The myth in the film is referred to as a paradigm used to create an illusion and a particular representation of the subject, although it might be wrong (Langdridge et al., 2018). For example, the film poster shows two close characters dancing together, creating an illusion of love. However, the poster has the phrase “here is to the fools who dream.” When combining the phrase and the whole poster, the myth is that the city of Las Angeles, California, is a city full of enjoyment and love. In the end, this myth turns is wrong since there are struggles in the city.

While creating a movie plot, directors and scriptwriters present a given ideology to be interpreted by the audience. The idea is achieved by combining a series of events or subjects to represent and pass the desired message (Muşat and Andonie, 2020). Thus, ideology is a body of ideas which represent individuals and class within a video clip. For example, considering the poster of the film La La Land conveys the message of love through its pictorial presentation where two individuals of the opposite sex dance together, expressing joy.

Additionally, the poster creates a theme of serenity and relaxation. The primary color used is blue, representing classical Hollywood, where many aspiring actors dream of and want to live. The city is considered to be flooded with exciting activities and simple life. Further, the posters show stars and a spotlight, which show light and present the dream of romance. However, the creator warns by writing that “here is to the fools who dream,” which should be considered a warning. This caution shows that individuals are likely shocked by the reality they will encounter.

When producing any art, movie directors and producers must conduct research regarding their subjects. The film depicts the exact activities that are experienced by people in the world thus becoming relevant (Black et al., 2017). The whole poster depicts the expectations people have regarding the city of Los Angeles, California proving that the production team conducted prior analysis before the actual video production. The title of the movie is well studied and analyzed to suit the act with poster portraying the literature that needs high knowledge to interpret.

To sum up, movies have different styles of presenting their message. Some styles and elements are replicated in every movie, primarily through posters. Posters, if analyzed carefully, present the whole message in the film; thus, it is unnecessary to continue to watch the movie. However, directors know the literature behind movie posters; they add symbols, icons, and indices which will create an illusion and admiration of the movie hence watching the whole movie. Therefore, film industries should always consider examining the symbols in their posters and how they relate to the movie before posting them to the public using this analysis. Further, they should know their audience because different groups interpret the message of the literature differently. Lastly, each person should know that each film poster presented has a different and unique meaning that the creator wanted to pass; hence cannot be considered and interpreted literally.

Black, H., Rubinstein, R., Frankowski, A., Hrybyk, G., Nemec, M. and Tucker, G., 2017. Identity, Semiotics, and Use of Symbols in Adult Day Services. The Gerontologist , 58(4), pp.730-738.

Bowcher, W., 2018. The semiotic sense of context vs the material sense of context. Functional Linguistics , 5(1), pp.

De Luca Picione, R. and Valsiner, J., 2017. Psychological functions of semiotic borders in sense-making: Liminality of narrative processes. Europe’s Journal of Psychology , 13(3), pp.532-547.

Langdridge, D., Davis, M., Gozdzielewska, L., McParland, J., Williams, L., Young, M., Smith, F., MacDonald, J., Price, L. and Flowers, P., 2018. A visual affective analysis of mass media interventions to increase antimicrobial stewardship amongst the public. British Journal of Health Psychology , 24(1), pp.66-87.

Muşat, B. and Andonie, R., 2020. Semiotic Aggregation in Deep Learning. Entropy , 22(12), pp.1365.

San-Martín, M., Delgado-Bolton, R. and Vivanco, L., 2017. Role of a Semiotics-Based Curriculum in Empathy Enhancement: A Longitudinal Study in Three Dominican Medical Schools. Frontiers in Psychology , 8, pp.

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IvyPanda. (2023, May 9). Analysis of the Film "La La Land" Poster. https://ivypanda.com/essays/analysis-of-the-film-la-la-land-poster/

"Analysis of the Film "La La Land" Poster." IvyPanda , 9 May 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/analysis-of-the-film-la-la-land-poster/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Analysis of the Film "La La Land" Poster'. 9 May.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Analysis of the Film "La La Land" Poster." May 9, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/analysis-of-the-film-la-la-land-poster/.

1. IvyPanda . "Analysis of the Film "La La Land" Poster." May 9, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/analysis-of-the-film-la-la-land-poster/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Analysis of the Film "La La Land" Poster." May 9, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/analysis-of-the-film-la-la-land-poster/.