Oscar nominations 2017: The case against 'La La Land'
Corrections & clarifications: An earlier version of this report incorrectly identified one of the two ‘La La Land’ songs nominated for the original song Oscar.
Is there any stopping La La Land?
The movie musical about two young artists dreaming and falling in love in Los Angeles danced away with 14 Oscar nominations (including best picture) on Tuesday, tying Titanic and All About Eve for the most nominations ever.
And that's just the Oscars. The film — starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling and directed by Whiplash's Damien Chazelle — has also picked up a record-breaking seven Golden Globes, 11 BAFTA nominations, a nomination for the Producers Guild Awards' top prize, AFI's movie of the year award, best actor and actress nominations from the Screen Actors Guild, and seven Critics' Choice Awards, including best picture. USA TODAY’s Brian Truitt gave the movie four out of four stars in his review, calling it “a clear favorite in the Oscar best-picture race,” and “both delightful confection and life-affirming food for the soul.” The film boasts a 93% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Oscar nominations 2017: Musical 'La La Land' ties record with 14 nods
However, La La Land is a film that does not, in many aspects, live up to its accolades, especially compared with other Oscar nominees such as Moonlight. Its chief selling point — to the audience and awards voters alike — is its nostalgic revival of the "Old Hollywood" movie musical, yet its music is one of its weakest aspects. While some numbers, like opener Another Day of Sun, are ambitious in scope and musicality, others, like City of Stars (which surprisingly beat out a Lin-Manuel Miranda-penned song for the Globe), are lackluster and dull. Oscar nominees Gosling and Stone, while great actors, are also simply not truly trained singers, and their thin vocals are evident throughout the film. While the choice is intentional and might endear some to the performances, it's distracting and takes you out of the fantasy the film is attempting to create. When Stone truly lets loose on Audition (The Fools Who Dream) near the end, it becomes apparent that the rest of the musical was written just slightly out of her most comfortable range. (Both City of Stars and Audition are nominated for original song at the Oscars.)
Also thinly drawn is Stone's character, Mia, a hollow person that the movie shortchanges in favor of focusing more on Gosling's Sebastian. Mia's backstory is brushed over, and her talent and struggle are never portrayed as fully as Sebastian's. A one-woman show she writes and self-finances is the crux of her journey in the film, yet the audience sees almost nothing of the show itself, let alone the effort she put into producing it. Her big break at the end of the movie (an audition for a "big movie" as nonspecific as her character) feels unearned. Sebastian, meanwhile, is shown paying his dues on multiple occasions — from playing Christmas carols at a restaurant to playing in a cheesy '80s cover band to touring with a jazz-pop crossover band he hates.
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Sebastian's storyline is not without its flaws. His character has been called a "white savior" by critics including Wired, New York Magazine and MTV News for his quest (and eventual success) to save the traditionally black musical genre from extinction, seemingly the only person who can accomplish such a goal. As MTV News notes, in the film "no one is as gifted at tickling the ivories as Gosling and his pearly white hands," adding, "If you’re gonna make a film about an artist staying true to the roots of jazz against the odds and against modern reinventions of the genre (from white musicians like, say, Mayer Hawthorne), you'd think that artist would be black."
Even La La Land's own awards narrative feels undeserved. The sentiment that La La Land should be honored for simply being an original musical that Hollywood took a “risk” in creating, repeated ad nauseum at the Globes acceptance podium, is not quite accurate. Musicals have had a resurgence in Hollywood in recent years, from the live shows like Hairspray on NBC and Grease on Fox to a weekly original musical in CW's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Musical Sing Street competed for the best musical or comedy Globe alongside La La Land, and animated musicals Moana and Sing cleaned up at the box office. Additionally, Chazelle wasn't a risky filmmaker in which to invest, as he was just coming off an Oscar nomination for Whiplash. Gosling and Stone only add to the film's credentials as two of Hollywood’s most bankable actors with a history of starring in projects together.
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Despite its flaws and a backlash simmering online, there’s no denying that the movie is on a roll, or that the film is a stunning visual and technical achievement. Hollywood loves stories about itself. Look at former best picture winners Argo and The Artist — it’s not shocking that these people love a film that romanticizes and glorifies their own lives and struggles. Nostalgia, too, has a firm grip on the Academy: In 2010, traditional historical drama The King’s Speech won over the more ambitious and modern The Social Network. In a year where actors make pointed political statements at the awards podium, the allure of easy escapism like La La Land may be stronger than more challenging films like Moonlight, which tells the story of a black gay man as he grows from lost child to bullied teen to intimidating drug dealer.
There’s about a month until the Academy Awards, with a handful of smaller award ceremonies yet to go. La La Land is the presumed front-runner for the best picture Oscar, and unless its backlash gets louder, it looks like things are going to stay that way. But we should see the movie for what it is — a nostalgic, easily forgettable romance — rather than building it up just because its characters sing and dance.
