View Poll Results: Yay or Nay

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Thread: La La Land (Damian Chazelle)

  1. #76
    Since 1929 Morris Schæffer's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Dukefrukem (view post)
    This doesn't deserve best picture.
    Granted, I went for a double action combo last night with John Wick 2 and XXX3 and so obliterated many brain cells in the process, but I still think I responded to it exactly as all the critics are saying they have. I felt extraordinarily happy, lump in my throat. Moonlight did not put a lump in my throat despite that I thought it was great too. Further analysis is not needed. Lump in throat wins.
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  2. #77
    Moderator TGM's Avatar
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    This so deserves best picture.

  3. #78
    Piss off, ghost! number8's Avatar
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    David Ehrlich re-reviewed it and I stand behind this assessment 100%. Some of the points I've even said in this thread.

    http://www.indiewire.com/2017/02/la-...re-1201786641/
    Quote Quoting Donald Glover
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  4. #79
    The Pan Spinal's Avatar
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    Coming to America (Landis, 1988) **
    The Beach Bum (Korine, 2019) *1/2
    Us (Peele, 2019) ***1/2
    Fugue (Smoczynska, 2018) ***1/2
    Prisoners (Villeneuve, 2013) ***1/2
    Shadow (Zhang, 2018) ***
    Oslo, August 31st (J. Trier, 2011) ****
    Climax (Noé, 2018) **1/2
    Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
    Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***

  5. #80
    Winston* Classic Winston*'s Avatar
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    Love this.

  6. #81
    Winston* Classic Winston*'s Avatar
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    Although to be fair. Gosling could already play piano.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRFeUc2KnBY

    I liked that album. He should record more music.

  7. #82
    Quote Quoting number8 (view post)
    David Ehrlich re-reviewed it and I stand behind this assessment 100%. Some of the points I've even said in this thread.

    http://www.indiewire.com/2017/02/la-...re-1201786641/
    There is something inherently amusing about the idea that La La Land of all things needed a passionate defense. I'm thinking of writing an in-depth defense of kittens. Or medium-rare steak. Or Tom Hanks.
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  8. #83
    Moderator TGM's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting transmogrifier (view post)
    There is something inherently amusing about the idea that La La Land of all things needed a passionate defense. I'm thinking of writing an in-depth defense of kittens. Or medium-rare steak. Or Tom Hanks.
    Just read through this thread alone to have an idea of why a defense for this movie is warranted. The backlash has totally taken over the adulation from fans, and it's more or less the same anywhere you go. You can't even bring this movie up anymore without being inundated by the backlash. Hell, a couple posters on this forum have already included almost hesitant mini-defenses for why they liked this movie, when honestly, this isn't the sorta film you should even have to defend why you liked it in the first place, and prior to a couple of months ago, before the backlash really set in, it wasn't. And while this might not apply here thankfully, many places aren't just targetting their hate at the movie itself, but its fans as well, which is just really fucking bizarre, and really fucking nasty. So, yeah, I'd say that this film has certainly earned a proper defense at this point, because that's precisely the point where those who like the movie have been brought to: constantly having to defend it.
    Last edited by TGM; 02-27-2017 at 03:31 AM.

  9. #84
    I don't buy into any of that. To me, the term "backlash" is often used as a defense mechanism to try an minimize criticism of something that a lot of people like, as if people are only complaining to be contrarians. The people who don't like LLL haven't liked it from the start (and vice versa, obviously). Once you accept that, the idea that there is some kind of war going on over this film is quite ludicrous, and something that is invented out of thin air by bloggers with nothing else to write about.
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  10. #85
    Moderator TGM's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting transmogrifier (view post)
    I don't buy into any of that. To me, the term "backlash" is often used as a defense mechanism to try an minimize criticism of something that a lot of people like, as if people are only complaining to be contrarians. The people who don't like LLL haven't liked it from the start (and vice versa, obviously). Once you accept that, the idea that there is some kind of war going on over this film is quite ludicrous, and something that is invented out of thin air by bloggers with nothing else to write about.
    Except that a lot of people suddenly started souring on it as soon as it swept at the Golden Globes, and suddenly, even people who originally sang its praises, were now saying the movie was overrated. Not saying that's the case here, but it definitely has been elsewhere, and a lot of negativity towards the film has largely drowned out a lot of that initial praise, hence people who liked it feeling the need to write a defense for it.

  11. #86
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    It's the film this Oscar season with the most constant thinkpieces, ranging from it being racist, sexist, mansplaining, jazzplaining, cultural appropriation; take your pick. I don't know how anyone who ever follow a bit of news about Oscar could have missed some of it. Unless this gloat:

    Quote Quoting transmogrifier (view post)
    With each passing year, I care less and less about these things. It's awesome.
    is very literal. In that case, puzzled about sureness, since even if you couldn't care less about this stuff it doesn't mean they aren't there.
    Midnight Run (1988) - 9
    The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) - 8.5
    The Adventures of Robinhood (1938) - 8
    Sisters (1973) - 6.5
    Shin Godzilla (2016) - 7.5

  12. #87
    Not really a gloat - it's just the way it is.

    All of these thinkpieces you mention are just modern movie journalism's way of giving itself something to do: pick a side and then write back and forth at each other in your own little recess of the internet. The fact is, La La Land has been embraced and loved by many, many people; the idea that it needs a defense and that its supporters are apparently feeling victimized is merely a reflection on how incestuous this Oscar crap is, because it is self-perpetuating nonsense.

    Here is how it goes:

    Film is released.
    A lot of people love it, some don't.
    For a while, sheer weight of numbers means the good notices predominate.
    After a while, negative views begin to share the stage as the sides are now set, and we can start to feel outraged by the opposite side's love or hate for whatever movie we are doing this again for. Reviews begin to start off by reviewing other reviews first so that the writer can create a "conversation", which basically consists of a handful of people writing pieces to push each other's buttons by referring to each other as much as possible.
    Some members of the majority consensus somehow take any criticism to represent a mammoth broadside attack on their darling (and this is where the term "backlash" is useful), when in fact the film is still loved by all the same people it ever was.

    And this all happens among a very incestuous movie blogger community that is more or less trying to draw massive cultural conclusions from its own echo-chamber.
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  13. #88
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    Gloating, being above it, whatever. I agree that part of it is the usual pattern of yearly backlash/reappraisal frenzy, but this year, about half (or even more) is much, much more intense to a noticeable degree, because this awards season happened right during the election and thus has become really intertwined with politics. Especially considering the optics of the two frontrunners (La La Land vs Moonlight) it's kinda amazing the speed and venom in which the narrative of La La Land as some Big Cultural Bad really takes hold.
    Midnight Run (1988) - 9
    The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) - 8.5
    The Adventures of Robinhood (1938) - 8
    Sisters (1973) - 6.5
    Shin Godzilla (2016) - 7.5

  14. #89
    Quote Quoting Peng (view post)
    Gloating, being above it, whatever.
    See, this is an example of trying to review the reviewer. I'm not above it - I just don't care about it and am not interested in it. If that that is the criteria for thinking you are better than something, well then, yachting better watch the hell out because I care about that even less.
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  15. #90
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    I just think "It's awesome" connotes a certain high-ish, see-me tone (like how some will come bother to click into a news article to type how they don't care about the news), but sorry anyway for including that and making my other points lost in the process.
    Midnight Run (1988) - 9
    The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) - 8.5
    The Adventures of Robinhood (1938) - 8
    Sisters (1973) - 6.5
    Shin Godzilla (2016) - 7.5

  16. #91
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    Fitting in a way, I suppose:

    Midnight Run (1988) - 9
    The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) - 8.5
    The Adventures of Robinhood (1938) - 8
    Sisters (1973) - 6.5
    Shin Godzilla (2016) - 7.5

  17. #92
    Piss off, ghost! number8's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Donald Glover
    I was actually just reading about Matt Damon and he’s like, ‘There’s a culture of outrage.’ I’m like, ‘Well, they have a reason to be outraged.’ I think it’s a lot of dudes just being scared. They’re like, ‘What if I did something and I didn’t realize it?’ I’m like, ‘Deal with it.’
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  18. #93
    The Pan Spinal's Avatar
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    "La La Land" Day, which coincides with the film's release on DVD and Blu-ray ...
    Oh, for pete's sake.
    Coming to America (Landis, 1988) **
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    Shadow (Zhang, 2018) ***
    Oslo, August 31st (J. Trier, 2011) ****
    Climax (Noé, 2018) **1/2
    Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
    Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***

  19. #94
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    I'm gonna choose a middle ground in reviewing this film although, frankly, it's much closer to a Nay than a Yay. I think the problem is that it fails to deliver on the promise made by the awesome opening scene of being a full-blown, unapologetic musical. By constantly returning to the "real world" (which is badly written enough that it sticks out as just as goofy as the musical scenes) and frankly not featuring that many impressive musical numbers - the one that introduces Mia and her girlfriends is very good and then it goes downhill from there - it seems that Chazelle missed his opportunity to make something really special that combines the innocence of something like Umbrellas of Cherbourg with a modern viewpoint.

    At the same time, I can't help but notice that visually, La La Land is the shit. It's inventive and it makes up for the laziness of its writing by telling a lot of the story through framing, composition and color correction. I don't really have a very strong opinion about its competition with Moonlight because I feel similarly about both films - they're well intentioned misfires that everyone seems to like more than I do.

  20. #95
    Since 1929 Morris Schæffer's Avatar
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    Almost a year after seeing this movie, I feel my spirits utterly lifted whenever I hear the soundtrack, as is the case at the time of typing this.

    La La Land, one of the few movies in the past 10 years which has relentlessly shattered my cynicism bubble!!
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  21. #96
    Replacing Luck Since 1984 Dukefrukem's Avatar
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    Ending gets me every time.

    I stand by that the dancing is crap though.
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  22. #97
    Since 1929 Morris Schæffer's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Dukefrukem (view post)
    Ending gets me every time.

    I stand by that the dancing is crap though.
    Dancing is sort of ok, nothing fancy or extravagant, but I think it befits these two dreamers who, as far as I recall, aren't dansers in the movie anyway.

    Yeah, that ending, hit me kinda hard and yet, it's just life. Him, still in that scrappy kitchen cooking up a meal, was really sort of sad.

    Will soon rewatch the 4K blu-ray with some other folks, can only hope they see the magic too.
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  23. #98
    Cinematographer Mal's Avatar
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    Ashley Wagner skated to the music from the film tonight in the Ladies free skate final. On a good day the movie is a 7/10... I love the music but I still stand by my feeling that the story needs something else. Its a thin, light watch.

  24. #99
    In the belly of a whale Henry Gale's Avatar
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    I also happened to re-watch it in 4K over Christmas! (Since, I dunno it's got some holiday elements in it, like Sebastian's restaurant gig needing to stick to Jingle Bells, etc.. but mainly it had just been a while since I watched it and I wanted a nice feel-good movie that I hadn't caught constant glimpses of on TV for weeks.)

    And yeah, nice to see it still really gets me and brings the tears out of me in most of the same places. Having seen it three times in the theatre (twice at TIFF '16 and then once more on the tail-end of its theatrical run last April as part of a birthday night out for me), this was the first time watching at home by myself, and it was more calm and quiet, now knowing the movie so well, just seeing it as it is without the novelty of fresh lustre, and perhaps a little less swept up in the emotions of others around, it is still lovely, but more feels more stark than most other movies in terms of how much more weirdly private and intimate it feels at home than it did celebrational and sensational on the big screen with audiences. For instance, the very last sequence didn't hit me quite as consistently hard as it did that first week I saw it twice, without feeling the internal gasp of the fantasy switcheroo kiss as well as the audible reactions from those around me, it just settles in more somberly and inevitably now.

    But then those final few shots where the fantasy and reality re-merge, things spiral back down to Earth, and the characters give each other those silent looks. It's still so beautiful.

    Quote Quoting Zac Efron (view post)
    Ashley Wagner skated to the music from the film tonight in the Ladies free skate final. On a good day the movie is a 7/10... I love the music but I still stand by my feeling that the story needs something else. Its a thin, light watch.
    I will say, having some more distance, seeing it a bunch of times now, I will say my one slight grievance that's always kinda been there (but previously buried amongst all my love for it) is now a lot clearer, which is that I really think the night of Mia's one-woman show, the script could've used a stronger reason for Sebastian to miss it than a goofy photoshoot that simply goes on longer than he maybe expected. Like, I realize at that point their relationship is already fractured enough that he doesn't really feel an absolute obligation to go, or for her to need him there, but at that point as the audience you really want him to make it, and the overt garishness of the scene's design and the comedic tones of the fashion photographer don't gel with the emotional current of everything else going on at that point.

    If they had even found a way to re-state the motif of LA traffic (diverting people's expectations, delaying them from where they wanna be) from the beginning and ending to delay Sebastian before he made it to Mia outside the theatre, then you might've felt something beyond his immediate control pulling him away from the inevitable.

    But I do still love the rest! It truly always feels too short despite being over two hours long.
    Last edited by Henry Gale; 01-06-2018 at 05:49 AM.
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  25. #100
    Evil mind, evil sword. Ivan Drago's Avatar
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    The only thing about it that doesn't hold up as well to me is its portrayal of Hollywood. . .a lot of times, it's beautiful, especially with its art direction and locations. But from other perspectives, it comes off as cartoonish, such as when Mia is listening to a writer talk about a script he wrote that was Goldilocks and the Three Bears from the perspective of the bears. It just sounds too cheap for me to believe those are the ideas that wannabe writers in LA come up with. . .unless there are others that can vouch for experiences like this?
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