These are divisive times. Agreement is hard to come by. Passions on both sides are inflamed. And Saturday Night Live is providing some of the most trenchant satire on the matter.
We are speaking, of course, about La La Land. No film – not Mel Gibson’s bloody Christian war tale Hacksaw Ridge, not Paul Verhoeven’s rape drama Elle – has sparked the kind of opinion clash that Damien Chazelle’s toe-tapping musical about showbiz dreamers has.
It’s not just another day of sun, as the movie’s opening number goes. It’s another day of think pieces.
La La Land, romantic and sincere, might seem an unlikely lightning rod. But that’s the life of the front-runner, which La La Land most definitely is. It’s made more than $300 million at the box office, globally (remarkable for a $30 million movie). It matched the record of 14 Academy Awards nominations. It set a new Golden Globes mark with seven wins. And most recently, it triumphed at the British Academy of Film and Television Awards.
One of the curious aspects of today’s Oscar season is that the movies that somehow managed to get made and released in franchise-crazy Hollywood and that then somehow rise to the Oscars, aren’t celebrated so much as the Academy Awards nears. Reaching this zenith often means getting torn apart for imperfections, blind spots and – horror of horrors – sub-Astaire dancing.
The backlash was inevitable for La La Land. It’s just a matter now of whether – as most expect – the tide will turn back in time for the Feb. 26 Oscars. So to help you decide what side you’re on in this most crucial of battles, here’s a rundown of the case against La La Land.
Some critics have said that La La Land, for all its charms, is a pale impression of the earlier musicals it was inspired by. There are the classic Hollywood backlot musicals like Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse in Vincent Minelli’s The Band Wagon (1953) and, of course, Singin’ in the Rain with Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds. Or there’s the on-the-street French musicals of Jacques Demy, like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort, which inspired the opening freeway scene of La La Land. These were the real-deal originals, they say.
Counter: This is one that probably even Chazelle wouldn’t much quibble with. He’s spoken often and with reverence for these and other musicals. La La Land is undoubtedly deeply animated by nostalgia, but its characters – and the movie, itself – hinges on finding a contemporary experience with some connection to the classical.
For others, the song-and-dance skills of Gosling and, to a lesser extent, Stone, aren’t up to the standards of Kelly, Reynolds or Astaire. The pair trained with choreographer Mandy Moore and Gosling learned to play his piano parts without any previous experience on the keys. They may be quick studies, but they aren’t the equals of the musical greats.
Counter: Well, who is? That’s a high bar to meet. And part of the appeal of La La Land is that its characters, even as they soar, are more down to Earth. Besides, the considerable gifts of Stone and Gosling are more than just footwork. They’re a heck of a lot funnier than Astaire, for starters.