[117 points / 11 votes]
“Until Sunday evening, February 26th the wildly popular musical La La Land seemed secure in the annals of posterity, regardless of what the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences were set to bestow upon it. The film won the prestigious Best Picture Award from the New York Film Critics Circle in early December and the domino effect extended all the way to London, where a similar group also crowned the throwback musical their own top prize. After the critics in a rare show of favorable unanimity for a musical film continue to issue unqualified praise, the Oscar precursor groups like the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs and the Critics' Choice followed suit, and audiences responded in a big way, making the film a worldwide box office smash. The film's astonishingly youthful director Damien Chazelle and his cast and crew didn't need to win a single Oscar after the kind of haul they took in during the three-month awards window, but were poised to cap off their miraculous with a body that would seem the friendliest of all toward the ebullient product they were selling.
“And after winning a slightly less than an expected six Oscars during the marathon show they had the winning Best Picture Oscars in their hands for about two minutes before chaos broke loose on the stage. A colossal, unprecedented gaffe in this age of painstaking precision was perpetuated by a tweet-crazy Price Waterhouse accountant backstage, who handed over a duplicate envelope of the prior Best Actress award to presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. Beatty initially fumbled, no doubt because the envelope had Emma Stone's name again, but the impatient Dunaway eager to get past Beatty's odd procrastination at the late hour saw the film's title and confidently announced what was to be the incorrect winner. After two full speeches the wall caved in on the triumphant La La Land delegation, though they displayed remarkable class in turning over their awards to the crew of Moonlight, the night's rightful Best Picture winner, even going as far as to hug and congratulate their respected colleagues. Though La La Land and Moonlight will forever be identified in the context of this unconscionable gaffe, there were some beautiful moments that will hopefully work against the embarrassment perpetuated by an unfocused voting official, and eventually bring the film's artistry back to its rightful prominence. Sadly though, this is not something likely to happen 'straight away' as the Brits might opine.
“The bare bones theme of La La Land revolves around what it means and entails to be in love. As showcased in this spirited, kaleidoscopic work it is strictly, as it is in real life, a fleeting affair, but while it lasts it is defined by pure ecstasy, an enraptured state of mind that briefly puts everything else in suspension. The film, almost in self parody, is set over a full year in a seasonal mode that flies in the face of a geographical region that almost never is affected by seasonal temperament. A crowded highway on the rim of the City of Angels is where the film launches and an anarchic dance number framed as ‘Another Day of Sun’ depicting song and dance as an outgrowth of exasperation and perhaps even a panacea for road rage. The bouncy tune, the first in a surprisingly melodic score that leaves you humming weeks after you leave the theater, was composed by Justin Hurwitz, who when all is said and done is this poignant musical's real star. Car roofs, the hot summer pavement and the back compartments of trucks serve as the stage for a bouncy number that recalls more recent musicals like Rent, but before long it is clear that Chazelle's major reference points are classic musicals like An American in Paris and the French The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.
“Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, the eventual lovers who get off to a rocky start are miles away from Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers as singers and dancers, but that is precisely the point. Critics who bemoaned the missing talent ignored the fallacy of the claim: these were two young people who possessed musical skills just marginally better than the rest of the population. To be polished musical stars would work against the story's believability. Yet Stone and Gosling were quite fine and imbued the film's big numbers: ‘City of Stars,’ ‘Audition (The Fools Who Dream)’ and the Planetarium medley with aching melancholia.
“At the end one feels the connection between the Stone and Gosling characters could not possibly be erased by a marriage and family, much as Bogart and Bergman's Parisian fling could never be psychologically negated. The arc also evokes the young songwriter Jimmy Webb, who wrote songs of loss for a girlfriend he regularly met in a Los Angeles meeting point known as MacArthur Park. They too chose different paths, but are forever unified by stirring lyrics, much as the La La Land couple will be musical soulmates based on compositions written during their time together. There are some sublime moments like the one in the Griffith Observatory where gravity is suspended to enable the duo to dance their way to the star studded heavens. Near the end in the film's buffo visual sequence, they expand the color barrier in an outdoor Parisian dance, bookended by some ravishing silhouette captures. The tearful nightclub visit and the imagining of what could have makes one wish for a happier ending, but it would violate the whole thematic premise of the picture.
“What ultimately doomed La La Land at the Oscars was an unusually vitriolic backlash that seemed to unite the musical haters and accentuate the huge nomination haul, which say the naysayers bring the film to unfavorable comparison with its predecessors. Combine the late surge of Moonlight and the use of a preferential ballot, and an unthinkable upset materialized. The silver lining is that La La Land won't fall victim to the second-guessing all Oscar winners go through years after when most winners are invariable downgraded. It will be up to posterity to assess La La Land's reputation down the line, but for the present it has offered audiences a hopeful message at an especially difficult time. Naysayers will point to the stereotypical showcasing of African Americans in a white romantic sphere, and jazz lovers will be a bit perplexed by the woeful jazz-rock band Gosling hooks up with, but historically this is all too true. If you give it a chance, La La Land, like its flawed but impassioned protagonists, will sweep you off your feet. This kind of exhilaration is a rarity in the theater these days.” ~ Sam Juliano
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