Current Events > Watching La La Land. Opening number won me over. spoilers

(+) Yeah! (+)

My first thought was "man imagine if they do that lame old school thing where they start singing right in the middle of traffic when people are just trying to get to work and live through their day" and lol they did that. I really enjoyed calling it.
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the opening number was done all in one cut
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The first two songs are the best songs other than city of stars...so get ready for meh music after lol.

Good movie tho

Oh that movie had major class, and a haunting soundtrack, and really charming scene composition. I do get why some people wanna come for it though. Personally, the only things I might have changed was bringing in the importance of the grandmother early and devoting some time to her in act one. Because her importance in act three felt like it came out of nowhere. And I want more historical explorations into the history of jazz so the plot reads less like starry-eyed ludite Ryan Gosling is here to 'revive' jazz, still a traditionally black music style, all by himself.
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Darkman124 posted...

the opening number was done all in one cut

Hollywood would love to have you believe that.
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Unfortunately it's all done hill from there. The second musical number is pretty good too then the movie is a boring slog for 2 straight hours.
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saspa posted...

Hollywood would love to have you believe that.

Well this is "Hollywood magic : the movie" at least for the first 30 minutes and then again at the end.
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That scene was literally in the previews.
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saspa posted...

Darkman124 posted...

the opening number was done all in one cut

Hollywood would love to have you believe that.

hm, apparently you are right. it was 3 shots.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Day_of_Sun

still impressive.
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That was a really fun movie.
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As far as "Hollywood fellating itself" I liked this one a lot more than Birdman, which was awful.

I liked how in the beginning it had a bit of an homage to movies past, as well as being a love letter to old school movie types. I like that kinda stuff a lot.

Don't know what to make of the ending, or rather what the movie wants the audience to make of it. Are we supposed to be depressed over them not being together and her having this whole other life? I don't know
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Everyone acted like it was the second coming of musicals, when in reality it is simply a pale imitation.
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All this obsession talk about jazz... made me think of Whipl— holy shit it WAS by the same director as Whiplash! Fucking hell I should have known. I enjoyed Gosling's passion for it (Emma Stone's character said something that I particularly loved, about passionate people making you like something because of how passionate they are about it) but I'm just not a fan of the music industry as a whole. I prefer when it was a love letter to movies. I also like musicals, but not particularly just plain cacophony of banging noises on instruments.

I like the piano pieces.
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That was like the only good song in teh movie tho
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The first dance music number with the setting sun between Emma and Ryan was also good, if only for the choreography giving a very nice golden cinema age vibe, an almost singin in the rain vibe (sans rain obviously)

I wonder if that's really Emma singing. I mean she does have a croaky frog voice after all (it's an actual medical condition from when she was a baby constantly crying, look it up)
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Loved the movie. The planetarium scene is still bad though.
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Skywalker82 posted...

The planetarium scene is still bad though.

i'm glad I'm not the only one who thought this lol. I cringed so hard during that scene.
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Skywalker82 posted...

Loved the movie. The planetarium scene is still bad though.

What why.
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Did you feel it wasn't believable that they were floating in the air?
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I'd have to watch it again to specifically say why but it really took me out of them film when I saw it.

Maybe the transition to when the go to dancing on the stars.

Maybe it's a reference to an old Hollywood movie but it didn't work well in this film.
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The entire movie was a love letter to Hollywood of old, did you not watch rebel without a cause? That's the planetarium where they were in the movie!

The surrealist cheesy nature of the scene is what the movie was about... of course I assumed that was the point, the movie would go a direction that it ultimately didn't, in that they would show this fairy tale romance but then cut to months/years later and they hate each other, are poor, old and haggard looking, something like that. It felt like that was where the movie was going because of all the recent trends of subverting classic boy meets girl stories (like in Frozen where they made the sweet prince a psychopath)

I'm fine with them not going that route.
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I really liked the soft singing voice of the black girl in the opening, I wanted to hear more of that.
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I haven't seen Rebel Without a Cause so I had no idea.

Like I said I liked the movie.

Mainly because it showed, in my opinion, that love doesn't need to be a one stop shop, or you have a soul mate.

That you can have an amazing time with someone but if you have to end it you can still be happy in the future if you pursue what interests you and can still find love.
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Yeah but I don't understand what they meant in the ending with them showing this whole other life where they're the ones who ended up married and having a kid. What does it mean, what's the takeaway when they show a scene like that?
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Why do they keep making movies about that era?
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What era, and what movies?
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saspa posted...

Yeah but I don't understand what they meant in the ending with them showing this whole other life where they're the ones who ended up married and having a kid. What does it mean, what's the takeaway when they show a scene like that?

I'm not 100% sure but it was through Emma Stone's character's eyes. It makes them not being together more harder for the audience,

I think I got it, I think her character is coming to the realization of a fantasy that is "too good to be true" will not happen and she is happy with where she is. The thing though is Ryan Gosling seemed more hurt by their encounter than she did.
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Exactly, but then again he always seemed like one of those types where "music" or jazz in this case is his first love or true love, what with his obsession or "extreme passion" over it. His baby wouldn't be so much an actual child so much as the club which he puts his heart and soul into.
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Movie made almost half a million at the box office, kudos. I'm glad it found success.
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actually feel bad for people who don't like la la land tbh
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curious if I would like Whiplash more
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NinjaBreakfast posted...

actually feel bad for people who don't like la la land tbh

Yeah those pityful souls, how dare they have different opinions than you!
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prettyprincess posted...

curious if I would like Whiplash more

As someone who doesn't care about Jazz or drums, yea! It is a good story of pursuing something that you have to work for that you really want.

The reason above all to watch it though is J.K. Simmons. He is fantastic in that movie.
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I watched Whiplash last month and didn't like it. I liked La La Land much better. It's the difference between like musicals and liking music I think.

I usually like stories about obsession but Whiplash was a miss for me. That ending though was great. But it's like, a wait of 2 hours to get to that payoff of some dude caring about something as inconsequential as banging on drums and rupturing mine ear drums.
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I actually enjoyed Birdman more than La La Land, lol

Not that I didn't enjoy La La Land, mind you.
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I think what made me draw the comparison is that La La Land was about the golden age of cinema, Birdman was about Hollywood stroking itself over the movies and actors it had in the last 20 years.

So it seemed more trivial, for example "Ooh naomi watts kissing scene" or "Haha edward norton is difficult to work with". You know I brought up It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia before, but ironically they "did it" before Birdman particularly the erection in bed on stage scene in The Nightman Cometh with Mac going "don't ruin this for me" . That scene in Birdman reminded me of that scene immediately and I instantly cracked up.
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MC_BatCommander posted...

Unfortunately it's all done hill from there. The second musical number is pretty good too then the movie is a boring slog for 2 straight hours.

It was good all the way through
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It's just another day in the fun...
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