Welcome to the City of Stars

Welcome to the City of Stars

By Lillian M.

February 12, 2017

Full of singing and dancing, La La Land went beyond the screen to create a world that viewers were absorbed into. The film recreated the feeling of watching an old black-and-white musical, but it included modern technology to create a truly timeless piece. La La Land, directed by Damien Chazelle, was the story of Mia (Emma Stone), an aspiring actress, and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), a jazz musician with dreams of opening his own jazz bar. The movie followed them on their journey to accomplish their dreams while they sang about their lives at every turn.

        The movie received countless praises and also received a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, a well known review website for TV shows, movies, actors, and more. Though not even out on DVD yet, the movie has already been nominated for multiple awards such as the Emmys, Academy Awards, Critics’ Choice, and many others, totaling to over 50 different nominations. Among them, there were nominations for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Costumes, Best Screenwriter, and Best Original Music (La La Land Nominations). The music and choreography were beautifully done. The use of multiple dance and music genres mixed the modern with old, and was a way to make the movie truly timeless.

 After I asked viewers to rate La La Land on a scale from 1-10, with 1 being not at all, I found from the ratings it is evident that viewers either strongly like or strongly hate La La Land. Cathy L.,, a student at LHS, exclaimed, “I would give it a 15!”  In comparison, Leslie W., a musical film fan, would give it “probably a 2.”

The best part of the movie seemed to be the atmosphere that the movie created for the audience with their use of a musical theme mixed with a real life problems. Ann M., a mother of a LHS student, stated, “I found the energy of the movie compelling, meaning I loved the vibrancy of the youth aspiring. Also, I loved that there is truth that life doesn’t always go as planned.”

Some viewers have made it clear they would have enjoyed the plot of the movie more in a nonmusical setting, and the ending was quite sad for a musical. Leslie W. also stated, “I think the movie would of been better as a nonmusical mostly because the music seemed to just be thrown in randomly anyway… I didn’t like the ending because I prefer happily ever afters.”

The music reminded some of West Side Story, but one viewer, Ann Maglio, made it clear that “when it was used later in the movie it made more sense.” Viewers agreed that more information about Sebastian would have been nice to have at the end of the movie. Five years later, viewers saw both Mia as a famous actress and her love life with a different man; however, not much was said about Sebastian. All that viewers saw was that he opened his Jazz Club and that he obviously missed Mia.