I have to say, La La Land's music is well done, city of stars kills both young and old, and dreamers are stunning. I couldn't stop the first time I heard it, tossed and turned and listened to it all night. As a pop musical movie, its photography, colors, staging, arrangement, and many clips that pay tribute to the golden age of musicals are not impeccable, but they are also dutiful. Especially the four-minute high-speed chorus at the opening, the long shot was completed in one go, although it has little to do with the story behind it, it is quite shocking. Since Chicago in 2002 and Rent in 2005, it's been a long time since the Hollywood factory has produced a well-made musical that has attracted so many people. La La land contributes in terms of reactivating the market for this movie genre.
But there is a difference between a good movie and a good one. In my opinion, La La Land may be remarkable as a pure musical, but as a movie, it can only be considered qualified. The plot of the script is cliché and nothing new, the characters are thin, and the handling of the feelings between Mia and Sebestian is even rough. But its biggest failure is that there is a problem with the idea. It is also a musical movie, and it also reflects the confrontation and confrontation between contemporary American young people who are pursuing artistic dreams and the plight of reality. The social breadth and depth shown by the latter, the portrayal of the characters, the brilliance of human nature and the power to fight against fate are all beyond the reach of La La Land. Don't tell me it's a personal aesthetic difference, I'm not a fan of Rent. My non-musical ears tell me that there is no song in Rent that has a better melody than city of stars. However, Rent is a movie that could be called a classic, while La La Land is not.
In our age, it seems that poverty and class are no longer talked about. However, poverty and class differences are the number one evil factor that causes countless pains for the younger generation to pursue their dreams. Poverty due to class differences is fully represented in Rent. The movie opens with the landlord Benny coming to force the rent. Young people who are too poor to pay their rent, have their electricity cut off on Christmas Eve, and light candles in an old house that is so cold and unheated, waiting for the new year to come. The street is full of ragged homeless people, domineering police officers, and robbers who take advantage of the darkness. The rampant drugs and AIDS are threatening their young lives all the time. In this cruel and cold world, a group of young artists warm and support each other with their youth, blood, kindness and sincerity. There's Roger, a guitarist with HIV, gay black lovers, Collins and Angle, Mark, a filmmaker who is ostracized as a Jew, Mimi, a drug-addicted pair, and Lara, Maureen and Joanne. Each character has her/his unique predicament, racial, health, gender, yet their destinies are linked, they have a common enemy - poverty and oppression from the property owners (landlords). They are proletarian artists who have no way out. If they do not resist, they will only be killed.
In La La Land, poverty only gets some side descriptions, such as Sebastian can't pay the rent and Mia went bankrupt because she played a one person play at her own expense. However, the script arranged for Sebastian to have a sister who pays his rent (it's a walking wallet); as for Mia, it's sad to be bankrupt, but she can pack up and go back to her middle-class parents! But what if Sebastian didn't have a sister who could pay the rent and Mia didn't have her middle-class parents? Poverty, in La La Land, is only a temporary obstacle, one that can be overcome through individual effort and diligence, rather than a social reality that requires no in-depth analysis. It is too poor, young people can still rely on their baby boomer parents and family members to overcome obstacles and continue to pursue their dreams. It seems that there is a rich father, mother and sister who is the final answer. Similar.
Rent's prescription for the social cancer of poverty is: community. People organized spontaneously to jointly resist the oppression of the propertied classes. There are many scenes of young people's gatherings and protests in the film, the most famous is the anti-rental action at the beginning, and the young people's gathering gathered in Maureen's performance later. The most touching thing is the Ryder Community Center that has appeared many times. Here, young people with AIDS organize themselves and meet regularly to share their troubles and encourage each other. It's here that Mark's cameras witness the power of the collective, and Roger's resistance from the beginning to becoming a member of the community at the end. With the help of the collective, the young people in the East Village dare to challenge the landlord who has changed from time to time, and they can also get help and warmth when they are most vulnerable and helpless.
However, La La Land seems to think that the problem of poverty can be solved by artists entering the industry for employment. Sebastian is the representative of the former choice. He has been doing bad music for a few years, but after saving enough money, he can finally open his favorite jazz club. Mia, the representative of the latter choice, did not bow to reality and sacrificed herself to art, but in the end, she relied on a "Bole", and since then the salted fish has turned around and escaped from the sea of suffering. It seems that the problem between Sebastian and Mia is to choose between being a big industrial screw or pursuing true art, and both are promising. This narrative condenses real life dilemmas into a multiple-choice chicken soup for the soul. Isn't that the favorite rhetoric of neoliberalism that the social problems caused by poverty and social inequality boil down to "individual choice"? ! If you make screws and sacrifices, will you still be out of luck? La La Land said, that's not my problem, it's that you are not strong enough, or you are not lucky enough~~!
In the world of Sebastian and Mia, there is no community. Although Mia has a group of difficult sisters, they also went to watch Mia's drama to show their support, but the "friendship" floating on the clouds does not require sweating, let alone bloodshed. Can't see how they supported Mia when she faced the humiliation of countless auditions. If Mia doesn't have a wealthy middle-class family to return to, will these sisters lend a helping hand? What should she do? All the problems can be solved by individual effort and luck in the end, but at what cost? It is a true love of youth past. what! How romantic! What about in Rent? Poverty took away Angle's life, Roger's ex-girlfriend's life, Mimi's health, and the only rental house they could shelter from the wind and snow in the freezing New York East Village!
Some people say that La La Land itself is a fantasy world separated from reality. After all, La La Land is about a dream, and people who dare to chase it. The movie itself is a dream, yes, but this dream is to let you wipe your eyes and tears in the movie theater for two hours, "Individual hard work and luck can succeed", "Dream chasers have to give up love, so miserable", "Even if Is it a kind of chicken soup for the soul and urban vulgar novels, such as losing your life and chasing your dreams, or let you really see the bright starry sky outside the dark world?
The fact that such a movie can be popular is very telling. The secret is to capture one of several timeless human themes: the conflict between dream and reality. More importantly, this proposition has become a common crisis faced by the young middle-class generation in the United States (or the world). In American society after 2008, economic development was sluggish, social polarization was further intensified, and the middle class shrank. Under the prevailing neoliberalism, the cost of education has risen again and again. Young people from the middle class are burdened with heavy student debt and hope to make a comeback through higher education, but the house leaks overnight, and after graduation, they encounter the high unemployment rate after the economic crisis. Finding a job is hard, and finding a high-paying job is even harder. The abnormal development of big cities, gentrification makes housing prices and rents skyrocket, and racial conflicts are intensified, and violent incidents are frequent. Millennials suddenly found their living conditions significantly worse than their parents' baby boomers. When it is time to become an independent adult, there is no fixed job, lack of stable income, can't afford to buy a house, can't drive a luxury car, can't have children, and even if it can afford it, can't afford to support it. Academia uses a new term to describe this new social phenomenon: emergent adulthood, the adult but minor, "semi-adult". In the face of brutal changes in the external environment, how can half-adults realize the American dream that they have had since childhood? La La Land has captured the hearts of a generation of semi-adults with the story of Sebastian and Mia's struggle as bait. It has to be said that this film is quite successful in expressing the conflict between ideal and reality. Sebastian's tragic experience when a musician was forced to become a keyboard player and Mia's audition, as well as their hard work and dedication on the way to pursue their dreams, will deeply move many young people on the way to pursue their dreams.
Dreamers has a lyrical line:
"A bit of madness is key
To give us new colors to see
Who knows where it will lead us?
And that's why they need us"
This half-adult American public, seeing the "American Dream" shot to death on the beach, is angry, confused and eager for change. It is under this strong desire to need new colors that some voters believe that a bit of madness is the key, and thus elect an unreliable president like Trump.
Dreamers also has another lyrical lyric:
And here's to the fools who dream
Crazy as they may seem
Here's to the hearts that break
Here's to the mess we make
America's madness today is probably far beyond breaking a few hearts, it The mess made is yet to come. If La La Land is another name for the American dream, then in the United States where neoliberalism is rampant and conservatism is on the rise, this dream may look beautiful like a movie, but I am afraid it is difficult. It's a sweet dream.
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