I can’t wait for this to hit video. I love musicals so much.
Kind of stoked to hear what you guys think of Moonlight.
Just between you and me, that’s one of the reasons I advocated for us to see it this week.
-xtien
Well Dingus, you guys didn’t disappoint: I’m all gushy. Er, I mean you got me wet. I mean, you guys gushed all over me.
I wanted to love it going in, but that opening sequence really is a barometer for whether or not you will like the movie: as it got going I started thinking “Oh God, I’m not sure I belong here.” I started to like it more once we were introduced to Gosling, but it never pulled me in.
I’m just remembering that the highlight of the movie for me was probably Emma Stone dancing to “I Ran,” which I thought was way more fun than any of the musical set pieces.
I’m jealous of everyone that felt magic, because I was mostly looking for news crawls that never came.
-Chris Webb
I loved a lot of this movie, but I didn’t find it to be a satisfying total package. I liked the musical numbers a lot and I was super happy to have a straight up musical that was not constantly winking at me. However, the romance just left me flat. These two actors are usually so charismatic, but there was almost zero chemistry between them and Gosling kinda phoned this one in. The movie almost saved itself with the final montage during his piano piece, but it felt unearned to me. I’m glad that a lot of people seem to like it because it is a viable genre; I just don’t think that this was as good as I wanted it to be.
Would you like more of the delightful Emma Stone dancing?
I haven’t listened to the podcast yet, just got back from the theater and I’m still decompressing.
For the first half or so, I was thinking 4/5 stars; it’s just a fun movie banking on charming leads, but that’s no crime. Emma was charisma-ing circles around Gosling, but he was still entertaining enough.
But somehow, at no particular point I can identify, it started to work for me, and by the end I was truly caught up in the final moments. I wish I had emotions more often, I could use the practice for the next time a musical springs them on me!
Manchester By The Sea is a better movie, hands down. But for whatever reason, this one actually hit me harder. No, that’s not quite accurate. Hmm, can’t figure out a better way to say it, and not sure why I’m even bringing the comparison up. It’s probably because I was assured by several folks at a party the other week that Manchester would have grown men weeping, which was not my personal experience at all. Whereas this really did sink in in the moment—I didn’t have a lump in my throat or tears in my eyes, but the emotional payload is a little more concentrated here and yeah, I don’t have a better way to say it other than that it hit me harder than I ever would’ve guessed. And yet Manchester was the one I was warned about.
There is so much to like in this movie.
First off, it’s a love story for Jazz, and the music is its own character. I’m a sucker for Pianos so I was just having a wonderful time for the first half of the movie.
Secondly, the camera work was amazing. The lusciously long takes - the one where they are dancing at the observatory it must have been just the camera man and them dancing. Uncut long take that does multiple 360’s. Really really nice to see long takes - reminded me of watching a play. For me long takes really let the actors show their chops. Even the small bit where Sebastian is on the dock, the hat juggle and then his short dance with the couple was really nice.
I’d have to watch it again, but one thing stuck with me: In every scene except for her entry into the big story, she’s wearing a dress. But in that one scene she’s in a pantsuit. Or did I mis-remember and there are other scenes (except for the one at the beginning when she’s in sweat pants? )
But in the end, I guess I’m an old fuddy duddy and a couple of things just didn’t work for me:
[spoiler]I didn’t like them fighting when he comes back for a night while touring. It felt forced. And then them breaking up, I could have perhaps taken it as they both get their dreams, but they don’t get each other, but then the alternate ending just didn’t work for me. At all. mainly because it resets in the bar - wrong place. If any place it should have been when she accepted the job and he decides not to go to Paris. To restart all the way back in the bar just pissed me off as a viewer because that part wasn’t a possible fork in the story for me.
I like my musicals to be happy. Call me old fashioned, but it just didn’t feel happy at all. They got their dreams, but not each other, and the melancholy at the end just left me in a downer.[/spoiler]
There’s a moment in la la land where Ryan Gosling comes to the coffee shop where Emma Stone works and they go for a walk around the studio lot. She starts telling him about how much she loves the movies, and as she does they come upon an actual movie being shot. It’s clearly a romance, but instead of watching the scene, Emma Stone totally ignores it and holds forth about how magical the movies are. The camera doesn’t even show us the scene that’s happening in front of them until the director yells cut, at which point Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling keep walking.
It was at that moment that I knew what good hands I was in. This, the scene says, isn’t a movie about the movie business, or about people getting swallowed up and spit out by the seedy side of Hollywood. It’s about the idea of the movies, about the wistful joy they can bring, and the people for whom the dream is more important that the real thing.
The first half didn’t do a lot for me, but the 5th act (winter, 5 years later) was the payoff. It felt a bit like Sliding Doors, about how your life changes based on one decision. But at that point in their lives, they had both moved on. She had a husband, a daughter, and the movie star career she wanted. He had his own club. And they had their memories.
Emma Stone was a revelation for me in this movie. I mean, yeah, she’s been around for a while, but never so luminous.
You should spoiler blur the last 3 sentences of that first paragraph. That spoils the entire movie.
Would teenagers appreciate La La Land? I have a 15- and 13-year old who both generally like musicals. But would the subject matter in La La Land be relevant and interesting to them?
There’s a kind of message there about how having someone who supports you without question can give you a real boost in life. I expect that’s a message that would be welcome to a teenager.
@ChristienMurawski, @tomchick, would any of the dance scenes in La La Land take a spot in your favorite dance moments?
My 14-year-old son loved it.
But he wants to be an actor, so he’s coming in with preconceived romantic feelings towards Hollywood. :)
That Christina Ricci number in Buffalo '66 is hard to top. But La La Land has an unfair advantage over everything else for the way each of its dance numbers happens to be in the movie La La Land. :)
-Tom
I looked at all the scenes I picked before, and it’s hard because I’m trying to put myself in the frame of mind I was in when I was picking them, and when I set up the topic. The problem comes when looking at what I say in the opening part of the post.
I’ve only seen La La Land one time, so what stands out for me, predominantly, is the tap scene after the party. Given the way I lay out the topic in the thread, I don’t know that I can sub it in, even though I love it so.
I was quick to think of replacing that Witness pick, because having now watched Fiddler on the Roof thanks to @fire, I think it is kind of cribbed from a key scene in that movie. The dance scene with Perchik and Hodel.
But I’m afraid I cannot sub in that great tap scene because of what I was apparently going for in creating the topic. I’d have to listen to the original podcast to hear myself lay down to the topic to be sure, though.
-xtien
Have you shown them Singin’ in the Rain yet?
-xtien
No. I’ve never seen Singin’ in the Rain, except an excerpt here and there. I noticed they’re showing it as one of those 1-2 night events in a movie theater later this month. Hm…