Logan Bryck’s review published on Letterboxd:
This review may contain spoilers.
La La Land is not about how movies back in the good old days used to be better than modern blockbusters. It’s not about pop music and blockbusters ruining what once was. La La Land intentionally sets out to subvert classic tropes to show that even though there is value in the old, there is no use in clinging to the old at the expense of the new. It’s about the new and old, the highbrow and the populist, co-existing and intermingling. It’s about knowledge of history informing innovation for art to move forward in the best way.
While Seb holds tradition above all else, Mia is the primary character of the film, not him. Seb is deliberately a very flawed character because the film is not espousing his views. Mia is not nearly as nostalgic and traditional as Seb—she does have an appreciation for the history of film in LA, but also when she finally gets her big break as an actress, it's explicitly for an experimental film. She’s shown enjoying jazz in the club with the 90-year-olds and also enjoying the music of The Messengers.
Chazelle seeks a blend of the highbrow and the populist, and a blend of the old and the new. He revives the classic movie musical, but in a contemporary aesthetic with faster pacing and much less emphasis on the singing and dancing. Chazelle refuses to try to remake a classic movie because doing the same thing over and over again loses its value. Throughout the film the contemporary setting butts in on any notions of this being a "classic" movie musical, with the constant thrum of the freeway behind outdoor conversations and the jolt of a cellphone ringing snapping us out of quiet, intimate moments.
Whiplash and La La Land are certainly two of the most widely seen Best Picture nominees of the last decade. Chazelle understands he doesn’t have to sacrifice artistry to attract an audience. While other artists might uncompromisingly think that high art can’t or shouldn’t be accessible, Chazelle is quickly proving himself quite adept at saying something meaningful while actually making general audiences give a shit.
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