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Against my better judgment, I went to see La La Land this weekend instead of Hidden Figures. I wish I had seen Hidden Figures (CB said it was so good!) because I came out of La La Land so annoyed. It’s not that La La Land (hereafter referred to as LLL so I don’t have to keep typing it out) is a bad movie – it’s actually not a bad movie at all. Now that I’ve seen it, I totally get why writer-director Damien Chazelle is the leading contender for all of those Best Director awards. Having seen Moonlight, I think Barry Jenkins should also be a huge part of the conversation for Best Director too (in my mind, the awards could and should go to either of them), but I won’t be mad if Chazelle takes home the Best Director Oscar. He had a $30 million budget and he did so much with it. Some of the shots and long-takes (without cuts/edits) were breathtaking in scope. LLL really is a beautiful – if twee – film.

My main problem was with the story and the hype around the performances. While you could tell that Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone both put in a lot of work for their roles, it bugs me that Emma is seen as such a major Oscar contender and Gosling is not. Gosling had so much more to do and his character had more meat while Emma’s character was little more than a cardboard cutout of a struggling actress. She had no character arc – she got everything she wanted without having to change or grow. Plus, she was one of those stereotypical pseudo-coy don’t-look-at-me-aren’t-I-adorable actress-y actresses. Super-annoying.

Other conversations around the film – there’s a conversation about white privilege and “the privilege of nostalgia,” as in LLL is a throw-back to twee, treacly, sentimental Hollywood musicals set in the 1950s for the most part, and only white folks get nostalgic about that time. There’s also a problem with a white character wanting to “save jazz,” although having seen the movie, I think they dealt with that issue within the story, through John Legend’s character. Speaking of, Legend was the only non-white supporting character. There were people of color around, but they were mostly used as window-dressing for the white characters’ love story. The most disturbing scene (for me) was when Gosling’s Seb is performing at a jazz club, with an audience that is primarily African-American, and all of the black folks form a circle around Emma’s Mia as she dances. Like, literally, black folks are only there to serve as background.

Salon had a piece about the quiet backlash against LLL following its dominance at the Golden Globes, and whether that backlash will ultimately affect its Oscar chances. My prediction is that LLL will lead in Oscar nominations and Emma and Chazelle will likely take home Oscars, regardless of the backlash. I’m still hoping that Moonlight picks up Best Picture though (but it might just be a pipe dream at this point).

PS… These are photos of Emma, Ryan and Damien in Paris last week. Em’s wearing Chanel.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
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