Lala Land - a second look

After the Academy Award snafu, I decided a re-watch of Lala Land was in order.  Plus I wanted to see the now iconic opening traffic scene - I had inadvertently gone into the wrong theater before and when I realized I was in the wrong place, by the time I got to the right place, it had already gone.

Yes, that scene was particularly good.  It was very similar to the rest of the movie.  Visually stimulating with many colors and good dancing, but the singing is somewhat muted throughout.  Along with the recurring song City of Stars.

Compared to the recently Beauty and the Beast, the only takeaway is that the muted singing was quite intentional.  If they wanted big and brassy, they could have easily done it.  Perhaps it was the jazz influence, meant to be calm and cool.  The Anti-Broadway musical perhaps.

The plot made a bit more sense when you know what to expect and can appreciate the dreamlike scenes for what they are, a momentary escape from reality.

Now I'll give it 4 stars  * * * *

No comments:

Post a Comment