|
To be clear, the movie is also in love with Hollywood, though. There's absolutely no meaningful criticism of the Hollywood way. That traffic jam is meant to be cheeky fun about LA being quirky, for instance, and there are basically no stakes for the characters pursuing Hollywood lives. It's more self-aware than typical stories but it still glamorizes the lifestyle.
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2017 18:20
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 16:36 |
|
|
I think the opening number is a way of playing with your expectations for the rest of the film then upending them. It sets the mood for the world they live in and the setting they're up against, then you find that both characters are somewhat oddballs in that world. The second number continues this by showing Mia as a reluctant participant in the party and networking scene and making you expect she'll meet the right person at the party only to meet noone she connects with (until she eventually runs in to Seb at his gig after getting towed). It kind of shows us that the world they're surrounded by does things a certain way and has expectations but it isn't until they both do their own thing they find happiness and success. It then shows the cost of achieving that of course, which makes it all the more important to set expectations from the opening number. It's also an important number to set the tone of the movie as "this is a straight up musical and love letter to big loud classic Hollywood" while also pointing out that everyone there has the same story but the setting isn't quite what you would expect (a traffic jam).
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2017 18:24
|
|
|
i am the bird posted:To be clear, the movie is also in love with Hollywood, though. There's absolutely no meaningful criticism of the Hollywood way. That traffic jam is meant to be cheeky fun about LA being quirky, for instance, and there are basically no stakes for the characters pursuing Hollywood lives. It's more self-aware than typical stories but it still glamorizes the lifestyle. True. The fact that Sebastian's bandmate is right about his attitude toward being a traditionalist, yet Sebastian is still able to open his dream place, albeit with a couple of caveats like the logo/name change and lack of fried chicken definitely neuters the point.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2017 18:35
|
|
|
Hedrigall posted:What makes the other songs ineligible? Not sure. I read an article that the academy was offered 70 songs to choose from and the others weren't listed. feedmyleg posted:True. The fact that Sebastian's bandmate is right about his attitude toward being a traditionalist, yet Sebastian is still able to open his dream place, albeit with a couple of caveats like the logo/name change and lack of fried chicken definitely neuters the point. I assumed Sebastian got to achieve his traditionalist dream because of the time he spent touring with the Messengers and essentially reintroducing the sound of jazz to people again.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2017 20:24
|
|
|
Also by making assloads of money touring.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2017 23:36
|
|
|
Cried like a bitch baby during the entire ending
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2017 03:30
|
|
|
Really enjoyed this movie. The editing, cinematography, sound mixing + editing, and costumes were all top notch. I enjoyed the use of color throughout the movie as well. Stone and Gosling had decent chemistry, but I think Gosling fell flat on singing. The songs themselves didn't really stick with me, but they were nice for the film. I'm not into musicals that much, but the story itself wasn't all that impressive, which I guess seems right for a movie like this. I thought Mia was ditsy and stupid throughout the entire movie, especially in the first half (not paying attention while driving, running late for an important audition, getting her car towed, etc.). Have some drat self-awareness. Overall, great film that I'm sure will win a lot of technical awards. Damien Chazelle does it again, how the hell is he making movies like Whiplash and La La Land when he's only 31?
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2017 19:58
|
|
|
La La Land is essentially a remake of his feature debut Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, and Whiplash is an adaptation of a short film of his. Still pretty amazing to be making this kind of work at that age, but each film's polish is probably due to being able to expand and hone the ideas from their predecessors.
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2017 20:15
|
|
|
This morning I played Another Day of Sun whilst in the shower. A+ would recommend.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2017 02:05
|
|
|
After the camera does a couple spins on/in the swimming pool it looks up to find fireworks and there's these awful lines of solid colour across the bottom of the frame. What's going on there? I assume they're unintentional? Also I don't get how people find the songs forgettable, poo poo's been rattling around my head for days.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2017 04:47
|
|
|
pokeyman posted:After the camera does a couple spins on/in the swimming pool it looks up to find fireworks and there's these awful lines of solid colour across the bottom of the frame. What's going on there? I assume they're unintentional? That spinning part made me really loving dizzy. I had to look away from the screen because it just went on too long. Only part of the movie I didn't enjoy honestly.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2017 05:26
|
|
|
I thought the actual structure of the songs could use a little help. I would've liked more characters bits in Another Day Of Sun, and the overall arc of Someone in the Crowd was messy. Mia doesn't want go, then she goes all pumped up, then she's in the bathroom having a semi-aborted I Want number, and then everyone's singing and the camera does a flip. It felt like a missed opportunity for a fully developed mini-arc - give her her "I Want" number in the apartment before she agrees to go, then demonstrate via song what wears her down at the party (think of the party numbers in Sondheim's very similar Merrily We Roll Along - Rich And Happy is nearly identical, but see also Let's Have Lunch from Sunset Boulevard), which gives her reason for a reprise of her I Want in which she says "I Can't". Just little things like that. It also felt like there were more than a few missed opportunities for musical numbers elsewhere. Musicalize the discussion about jazz, to better demonstrate old vs new. Musicalize Mia's play in miniature, so we get a glimpse of her youth. etc etc.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2017 05:45
|
|
|
^^^ Those are good points. "Someone in the Crowd" in particular was confusing plot-wise. We were trying to figure out why Mia even went, like "the others needed a ride so they convinced Mia to go". Bottom Liner posted:That spinning part made me really loving dizzy. I had to look away from the screen because it just went on too long. Only part of the movie I didn't enjoy honestly. It was pretty rough.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2017 15:25
|
|
|
Chicken on a Stick would be a great name for a club of any kind
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2017 16:15
|
|
|
I appreciate a lot of the music more than I like it, sort of like jazz I guess. The problem I felt with the soundtrack is there are a lot of ideas that flow through multiple songs, which makes some of them sound too samey. It works great when combining everything in an instrumental epilogue, but sort of hurts the individual songs when they come up. Someone in the Crowd ends up coming across as just a worse version of Another Day of Sun to me because of this.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2017 20:29
|
|
|
I think of Another Day of Sun and Someone in the Crowd as separate from the rest of the soundtrack (besides Start a Fire) because they are the two songs that are mostly impersonal to our main characters. Like I said earlier, they set the backdrop for our characters, but are more typical musical numbers without as much character because they're not sung by or really related to the protagonists. It's the people of that scene singing about the way things are and how you get ahead, which is counter to everything our characters represent. Weird that they're my favorite two songs. I guess I just like big Hollywood numbers more than the intimate tracks that are shared by Mia and Seb, even though those have much more memorable melodies and are where the actual plot is developed.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2017 20:40
|
|
|
What a wonderful movie. This won me over in a way that almost nothing else from 2016 has- the sheer charm offensive of it, the warm colors (Hey, pinks and purples, like movies used to have!), the jazzy tunes, loved it all. I like that it draws from a good range of musicals in its influence- there's a lot of Jacques Demy as people have noted, but of course it's clear the filmmakers also love the classic Hollywood stuff, and the jazz elements also put me in mind of One From The Heart. Of course it helps that the Drafthouse pre-show contained trailers for Young Girls of Rochefort, Umbrellas of Cherbourg, New York, New York, Pennies From Heaven, etc. The songs definitely run together a bit, and I think that's deliberate and I'm not sure what I think of the score overall, but there are definitely highlights. It doesn't seem to fully follow the Broadway/Hollywood structure- as said above there's not a clear "I Want" song- but it definitely goes for that in places. And this, like the Nice Guys, is a good example of filmmakers knowing how to take advantage of Ryan Gosling's charm. Any other actor, the guy might come off as just too elitist and douchey (though the actual plot addresses this and he suffers for it), but he can pull it off. No, you be trippin'.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2017 20:56
|
|
|
Nice little haul of Golden Globes.
|
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2017 05:46
|
|
|
Bottom Liner posted:I think of Another Day of Sun and Someone in the Crowd as separate from the rest of the soundtrack (besides Start a Fire) because they are the two songs that are mostly impersonal to our main characters. Like I said earlier, they set the backdrop for our characters, but are more typical musical numbers without as much character because they're not sung by or really related to the protagonists. It's the people of that scene singing about the way things are and how you get ahead, which is counter to everything our characters represent. Weird that they're my favorite two songs. I guess I just like big Hollywood numbers more than the intimate tracks that are shared by Mia and Seb, even though those have much more memorable melodies and are where the actual plot is developed. Weird, because Someone In The Crowd is my least favorite song, while Another Day Of Sun is my favorite by a long shot to the point that I wish it informed the film's direction more. I mostly just listen to Another Day Of Sun on loop.
|
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2017 05:58
|
|
|
This is fantastic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoYtE58DiRo
|
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2017 06:47
|
|
|
They can't have had a ton of time to pull that together? Also, while fantastic, it was probably baffling to anyone who hadn't seen this fine film.
|
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2017 06:58
|
|
|
I saw it about a month ago now and didn't see the thread. I loved the film, but wasn't exactly crazy about the music. Audition is my favorite song as its the heart of the film to me and it's powerful and moving in the context of the film but to listen to it isolated, doesn't do much. It might be better to say it's the lyrics I don't care for, but the actual tunes are great. Saw it in an art house theater with maybe 10 people total, but there wasn't a dry eye from Audition to the ending. You feel alright during the final song until Seb hits those final notes and realization sets in. You're destroyed.
|
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2017 07:15
|
|
|
After seeing it twice and listening to the soundtrack a whole lotta times - I think it's most successful when viewed as a retro movie, and not a musical. That being said, the first two numbers are killer. Killer killer killer. I wish it wasn't so goddamn white and I wish we didn't have to sit through Ryan Gosling lecturing us about the faults of modern jazz. GonSmithe posted:Cried like a bitch baby during the entire ending
|
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2017 08:53
|
|
|
Harlock posted:Saw it in an art house theater with maybe 10 people total, but there wasn't a dry eye from Audition to the ending. You feel alright during the final song until Seb hits those final notes and realization sets in. You're destroyed. For me it started as soon as they kissed. As everything went on and you are bombarded by these gorgeous visuals and happy music, you know it's all gone. You know those feelings were there and they were real, but now they're gone. And that devastated me.
|
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2017 14:18
|
|
|
Am I crazy or was the first audition basically an adaptation of this:
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2017 13:27
|
|
|
I saw this on New Year's eve with my girlfriend who had already seen it in a preview a few weeks ago, and it's definitely one of the best movies of the year for me. The theater was surprisingly packed (for New Year's eve). The ending sequence was amazing and I love the mix of sweet and melancholy overall. Once the seasonal transitions began, I figured out what would probably happen since I knew what season the movie was going to end on, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the ride. I'm not a huge fan of musicals, but I loved the first two songs a lot. Even though they may not be the most personal songs, I loved their big full sounds. The refrain from "Someone in the crowd" stuck with me for a long time. I was just a little disappointed that we didn't get any more numbers like them. I'll have to watch this again soon.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2017 19:41
|
|
|
drainpipe posted:I saw this on New Year's eve with my girlfriend who had already seen it in a preview a few weeks ago, and it's definitely one of the best movies of the year for me. The theater was surprisingly packed (for New Year's eve). The ending sequence was amazing and I love the mix of sweet and melancholy overall. Once the seasonal transitions began, I figured out what would probably happen since I knew what season the movie was going to end on, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the ride. I would have liked a few more numbers too, I'm just not sure where they would have fit them in. Some woe-is-me singing during Fall would have been good, maybe. As it stands I think the movie is paced really well, and that it stands up with so few numbers is pretty remarkable.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2017 20:43
|
|
|
i am the bird posted:And while I think it's unfair to condemn the entire film for it, I can't help but agree with the critics who pointed out that the "white man saves jazz" plot is awful, especially when the foil is represented by John Legend depicted as a total sellout. Immediately what I thought of when my friend started describing the movie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaM6lTmhnak
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2017 20:53
|
|
|
pokeyman posted:After the camera does a couple spins on/in the swimming pool it looks up to find fireworks and there's these awful lines of solid colour across the bottom of the frame. What's going on there? I assume they're unintentional? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LzaPARy3uA
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2017 08:48
|
|
|
Cool! Thanks!
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2017 01:33
|
|
|
I must be one of the few that hated the first song immensely. I guess I'm not much of big musical type numbers though. I thought the main theme and City of Stars were great though.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2017 06:54
|
|
|
I didn't care much for the song either but it does set the tone and provides a good introduction for the movie you are about to get. That might be a more important than you might suspect, because when I saw the movie in December one of the cinema employees greeted us and announced that we were about to see a musical and that if we didn't like it we could leave the room quietly and you'd get your money back (even if the movie was already an half hour in). That was near the end of the movie's first week over here. It's the first time I experienced anything like that happening. Mierenneuker fucked around with this message at 10:22 on Jan 12, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2017 10:19
|
|
|
Mierenneuker posted:I didn't care much for the song either but it does set the tone and provides a good introduction for the movie you are about to get. That might be a more important than you might suspect, because when I saw the movie in December one of the cinema employees greeted us and announced that we were about to see a musical and that if we didn't like it we could leave the room quietly and you'd get your money back (even if the movie was already an half hour in). I have literally never heard of this happening and I have worked at a movie theater for years. There must be some complain-y rear end regulars there.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2017 16:44
|
|
|
Ewar Woowar posted:I must be one of the few that hated the first song immensely. I guess I'm not much of big musical type numbers though. I thought the main theme and City of Stars were great though. I didn't hate it the first time, but certainly wasn't in love with it. Second time around I found it really catchy and fun, though. I think for me it was because I had a hard time parsing the lyrics.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2017 16:46
|
|
|
I genuinely don't understand how someone who likes movies could watch the opening number and "hate it immensely." Sure, maybe you don't like the song, but that opening scene is just so spectacular and energetic and impressive on a technical level that even if it were silent, just the choreography alone, including that of the camera, is so good.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2017 16:51
|
|
|
DC Murderverse posted:I have literally never heard of this happening and I have worked at a movie theater for years. There must be some complain-y rear end regulars there. I doubt that it would be regulars since those would be utilizing their "Unlimited" subscription service and could leave and go see something else without the need for refunds. I personally suspect groups of ladies having a ladies night thinking they'd get a standard rom com.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2017 17:12
|
|
|
Speaking of the opening, new featurette shows some behind the scenes footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXLTERdI4zs
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2017 17:27
|
|
|
I'd pay $50 for a bluray of this today
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2017 17:51
|
|
|
I just assumed that the background in the opening sequence was CGI/superimposed 
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2017 17:52
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 16:36 |
|
|
The opening scene/song was definitely lost on me in my first and so far only viewing of the film, but now it's my favorite song on the soundtrack. I just play these songs in their order on the album over and over: Another day of sun, Someone in the crowd, City of stars, The audition (fools who dream)
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2017 19:04
|
|