La La Land

La La Land proudly wears its influences on its sleeves. We open to a retro version of the Summit logo, in shaky black and white and 4:3 aspect ratio, before cutting to the bright blue technicolor sky, the 4:3 obscuring a word, which is revealed to be CinemaScope, complete in retro style font, as the film unfurls into full 16:9 widescreen glory. And just as we feel we have entered a film from another era we pan down the most 21st century thing imaginable. A traffic jam. A traffic jam followed a dance number shot in one take mind. Clearly, director Damien Chazelle wants to use key iconography to remind us of Hollywood past but also to tell a modern take on the movie musical format. The blood, sweat and tears of his previous effort (2014’s excellent and intense Whiplash) are replaced by sun-drenched settings, highly choreographed musical and dance numbers, fantasy sequences and a classic tale of romance, with a twist. It's clear to see why it has been such a hit with audiences and critics. It is obvious that time, love and effort has gone into making La La Land – the film is a passion project for Chazelle, who has been trying to get it made for years. 

Mia (Emma Stone) is an aspiring actress, having tried to break into Hollywood for years, juggling auditions, a dull barista job and maintaining a social life with her friends. Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) is a dedicated and serious lover of jazz. He dreams of opening up his own bar, a sanctuary for the dying genre but is stuck working dead end jobs that dilute his integrity. Through a chance meeting, the pair get off to a rocky start but soon begin to fall in love. The couple navigate life's ups and downs as they start working towards their dreams, which threatens to rip them apart... The story has been told a thousand times before but it is the intensely likeable performances of the leads and the impeccable technique that makes La La Land into a very special film. 

Chazelle’s ability to compose a scene is a sight to behold. To begin with, we have an incredible impressive one take musical number on a highway, which perfectly sets the tone for the film. Chazelle’s masterful direction is no more apparent than in the fantasy sequences. The best musicals use songs to forward the story and express the characters’ emotions. La La Land does one better by using fantasy sequences, in addition to the songs and clever use of diegetic/non-diegetic sound, to elevate the proceedings to visually and musically tell the story. The best sequence for this is towards the end of the film, where Sebastian begins to play their song on piano in a club years down the line, inciting at first memories from long ago before launching into an almost avant-garde sequence, showing what might have been for the couple if they could go back and do it differently. It's a risky move that works 100% in communicating the characters’ emotions just through images and music. However, when we do need to get more grounded, the film is not afraid to stripe back the musical excesses and concentrate on the two leads. Some of the films most powerful moments comes from the characters singing a delicate duet together or having a heated argument. When the things go rocky in the relationship, the film actually strips back completely on the musical numbers and dance sequences into a much more realistic style (the songs don't return until a key turning point in the story). 

Outside of the direction, the second reason La La Land works so well is due to its two leads, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. These are the most prominent characters and are the audiences' prime attention – the side characters don't get much of a say (similar to Whiplash’s close examination of Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons’ relationship with each other). There is not a single ounce of cynicism in these performances and that might be one of the film’s greatest strengths. There is just this irresistible energy and positivity to both their performances, so it's easy to get sucked into their relationship and the dilemmas they must face. Emma Stone in particular stands out here – her wide eyed optimism makes it particularly hard to watch when she gets rejection after rejection from her coveted auditions. Playing an aspiring actor playing a character in an audition is a hard thing to do, yet Stone pulls it off flawlessly. Gosling as well is warm and funny, having only seen him in the ultra serious Nicolas Winding Refn films, taking a fairly obsessive character into an understandable and, at times, fairly tragic character. 

So the other other large element of La La Land is, of course, the music. First of all, the dance choreography is second to none. I think there's a nice fusion between classic Hollywood and modern Broadway set up and execution to the musical numbers and it just comes together flawlessly. The biggest influence on the soundtrack is jazz of course and it's hard not to get caught up in Sebastian’s love for the genre – a great scene has him attempting to convert Mia to the art form, passionately describing how each instrument is at war with each other for dominance in the piece, creating something new and exciting every night (which makes it doubly tragic when he has to join a big band for financial reasons). I think Chazelle is using jazz to subtlety comment on the state of the movie musical genre - we can respect the innovators and love the classics all we want but ultimately we need to be looking forward to find new, respectful and exciting ways of keeping this genre alive. So that said , the songs are greatly infused with a jazz sensibility. While I don't think the songs are immediately memorable, I'm sure on repeated listens to the soundtrack they will begin to stick, as again the actors are giving it their all, singing sincerely. City of Stars is the stand out here, a quiet ballad that connects the two leads.  

La La Land is truly a musical for the modern era. With its foot in the past, it also looks forward, using clever new techniques and a slightly modern sensibility to tell a classic story. Chazelle has come out as being something of a master craftsman, using creative lighting, wonderful sets, crafty cinematography and a subtle art design stuck between modern and classic Hollywood trappings. This helps to give La La Land universal appeal. Like jazz, the musical genre is not dead and films like La La Land remind us that there is still life in this classic format.  

Rating: 9/10 

A Monster Calls

A Monster Calls is a profoundly sad film. Based on a novel by Patrick Ness (which in itself was based on an idea by the late Siobhan Dowd), the film follows an emotionally troubled lad named Conor O’Malley. He is bullied at school, has trouble connecting with people, has an estranged father who now lives in LA and his mother is suffering from a terminal illness. With the prospect of his world closing around him, one night Conor inadvertently meets a “monster”, who takes the form of a giant humanoid yew tree. The Monster returns on random nights at 12:07 and wants to tell Conor three stories, the purpose of which Conor must solve on his own…

While it's hard to know who A Monster Calls is aimed for and, while it's far from a perfect film, it does eventually hit those emotional beats – and hits them hard. Lewis MacDougall gives an excellent performance as Conor. He is a deeply sad and angry child, navigating through great emotions and MacDougall manages to balance them all to make a powerful performance. It is fairly unique to have a child character like this on the big screen and I applaud the actor and filmmakers for pushing this element. Liam Neeson plays the titular monster, who breathes great life and gravitas to the character. The Monster essentially serves as a visual portrait for the range of emotions that Conor is experiencing, along with the fully illustrated the individual stories, which we’ll get to. The Monster is render in stunning 3D animation and is a very believable CGI creation. You get the sense of his age and wisdom just through the design. The rest of the performances are also just as fine – Felicity Jones trades in a great performance as the mother (light years away from her wooden and emotionless performance as Jyn Erso in Rogue One). Signorney Weaver tries to adopt an English accent and for the most part she does fine; she’s very convincing as the strict but ultimately loving grandmother, coping with slowly losing a daughter but also trying to connect with her somewhat estranged grandson. Conor’s father is also an interesting character, separated from Conor's mother and living abroad. It would be very easy to paint him as a negative figure but actually they did do spend time establishing the connection between father and son – he’s loving but he also has his own separate life to lead.

However, the heart of the film is the emotional turmoil of Conor. When the film concentrates on this aspect it soars. The Monster tells Conor three stories which serves to illustrate the rollercoaster ride of emotions he is experiencing. One is a complex tale, set in a fairy tale kingdom, illustrating the illusion of ‘good’ acts and ‘bad’ acts. Another is about a conflict between an apothecary and a parson during the Industrial Revolution, showing the difficulty of maintaining integrity in a difficult situation (which also has ramifications in the real world, which I won’t spoil here as it’s probably the best scene in the film). And finally, a tale of anger and vengeance. The stories are rendered in gorgeous abstract animation and help to elevate the film’s themes and messages. However, when it strips these back and directly tackles Conor’s feelings the film takes the time to show this in a stark and realistic manner in the particular in the film's final act (albeit with a giant talking tree). When a quiet moment is required, it is presented as such and is a sign of the quality of the direction. 

The film does suffer from some script problems. The opening 15 minutes are a bit clunky and  the dialogue does suffer outside of Conor and The Monster’s interactions. The bully dialogue we’ve heard a hundred times before and reads almost like a state-mandated drama school script. I also feel the mother’s dialogue is a bit too saintly. It does hint at the real ramifications of the situation she's in with heated arguments behind closed doors but with Conor the dialogue is a little bit too … well movie script I guess. The film is really at its best in the real world scenes when it is stripped back – one of the most powerful scenes has no dialogue whatsoever or like with the interactions with the father, where they struggle to express their emotions. This is much more like real life and the film rides the line between realistic and movie dialogue. Now you could argue that the mother is putting this on for Conor but I don’t know…I just think it would have made for a powerful contrast. Pan's Labyrinth is great example of how to balance stark realism and fantasy elements in one and A Monster Calls should probably have taken more from this book. 

However, that being said, when A Monster Calls gets rolling, it really gets rolling. Some bad dialogue aside, it is a hugely emotional film that seems to encourage stories as healing. We attach ourselves to fictional stories as we can see ourselves in them. They become part of the healing process following significant trauma or a negative event and help us make sense of where we are emotionally at. This is the power of fiction. When A Monster Calls gets it right, it really gets it right and becomes a rewarding experience. I respect the intentions of the film, even if some of the execution isn't perfect. And it can safely join the category of films that leave me an emotional wreck at the end of the film.

Rating: 7/10