Back to La La Land

A return visit to LA LA LAND was nice this week, for a rainy afternoon, as my partner had not seen it, and yes, he loved it - the music and dancing and the jazz and all those bright colours. I liked it a lot too again, but it seemed a tad too long, and maybe shallow. 

But hey, we like Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone is a big discovery for me and some sequences just sang for me, recalling moments from the Cukor 1954 A STAR IS BORN (walking around the movie sound stages), AN AMERICAN IN PARIS,  SINGING IN THE RAIN, THE BANDWAGON's "Dancing In The Dark"- Minnelli is a big influence here as is French director Jacques Demy - echoes of UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG and particuarly THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT, that 1967 delight and of course Scorsese's NEW YORK NEW YORK with that other driven, more intense couple both finding their individual careers but having to separate to do so - LA LA LAND is not quite in that league, but has so many blissful moments we don't care, thanks to Damien Chazelle's flair. He captures the spirit of those films and recreates it in present day Los Angeles - Joni's "city of the fallen angels", taking in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE's Griffith Park Observatory along the way. 
More on Scorsese, Demy, Minnelli and Ryan at labels. 

La La Land

Finally, LA LA LAND. See the hit movie, sure, but don't think it's the best musical ever just because you've never seen a musical.

The Oracle, my friend Martin says:

Believe the hype! Damien Chazelle's gorgeous, bitter-sweet new musical LA LA LAND filters both Demy and Minnelli through Chazelle's own post-modern vision of a 21st century LA that's steeped in a mythical musical past. This is a movie the way I sometimes remember movies used to be; big, bold, innovative and totally unafraid to take chances. It begins with a genuinely entrancing homage to the kind of fifties song-and-dance films that Gene Kelly might have dreamed up before launching into a boy-meets-girl love affair that isn't afraid to threaten to turn sour a la NEW YORK NEW YORK, (another musical it pays homage to with its jazz inflected score), but never really does. 

This is a truly uplifting experience. unashamedly romantic and blessed with a couple of sublime performances from Ryan Gosling and especially Emma Stone who together make falling in love seem like the most natural thing in the world. LA LA LAND recently picked up seven Golden Globes and is virtually guaranteed to sweep the boards at next month's Oscars. Who says they don't make 'em like this anymore.

I agree with most of that, but I do not regard it a a muscial as such - apart from the astonishing opening scene on the freeway, and some nice moments with the two leads dancing. Anyone who knows Jacques Demy's UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG or, especially, LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT from 1967 with its candy colours and the whole cast dancing - and yes, an older Gene Kelly is there too - will find much to enjoy here. It is certainly the film of the season, let's see how the rest of the awards pile up ...

The Neon Demon

What to say about Nicolas Winding Refn's latest THE NEON DEMON? Do I even want to say anything about it? We had been anticipating it, as we liked his DRIVE a lot, seen it several times, and I totally got and loved ONLY GOD FORGIVES, which alienated a lot, but it hypnotic hallucinogenic Tarantino-on-acid revenge tale with that amazing performance from Kristen Scott Thomas totally wowed me. (Reviews at Ryan Gosling label). 

THE NEON DEMON though seems to be all style and no substance, it starts great - super visuals and soundtrack. But whatever the "thing" that teen model Jesse has and which the other models want, somehow eludes me. She just seems passive and bland, and if she is the next big thing why is she staying in a seedy, rundown motel, run by a scuzzy Keanu Reeves? Then what do we make of that large animal in her room .... 

The sixteen year-old aspiring model Jesse arrives in Los Angeles expecting to be a successful model. Photographer Dean takes photos for her portfolio and dates her. Jesse befriends the lesbian makeup artist Ruby and then the envious models Gigi and Sarah at a party. Meanwhile the agency considers Jesse beautiful with a "thing" that makes her different and she is sent to the professional photographer Jack. Jesse attracts he attention of the industry and has a successful beginning of career. But Ruby, Gigi and Sarah are capable of doing anything to get her "thing". 

There are points to be made about the fashion industry and how it devours (literally here) new talent ... but we also get long pauses as that climax unfolds. I can't say any more about that, but one is left at the end thinking is that it?  Despite the grand guignol climaxes and that morgue scene, it is all rather forgettable. It is certainly though a polarising movie - some love it for the visuals and style, while others hate the story and the characters and those laughable eye-popping scenes! 

La La Land, Tom & Isabelle at LFF ,,,

Another year, another bulky LFF (London Film Festival) brochure arrives for the October feast of new films, as another award season gets underway.

The Venice Film Festival is also in full swing, and initial reports on some of the films whet one's appetite. I particularly want to see LA LA LAND, David Chazelle's follow-up to WHIPLASH which is an out-and-out musical, a hymn to Hollywood and stardom and those who strive there. Ryan Gosling at his most appealing plays a jazz musician hoping to open his own club. Emma Stone is an aspiring actress but working as a barista. They get together and inspire each other to achieve their dreams, they sing and dance. The stunning opening sequence apparantly of mass happiness breaking out on a jammed freeway is eye-popping. Bring it on. Maybe a new hymn to Hollywood and music a la Scorsese's NEW YORK NEW YORK?  

Tom Ford, after the problematic version of Isherwood's A SINGLE MAN in 2009 (see Tom Ford label), also has a well received new film, that should generate a lot of interest: NOCTURNAL ANIMALS, showing the disintegration of crime victim Jake Gyllenhaal in rural Texas. Amy Adams and Michael Sheen also star. The Ford got the grand jury prize at Venice and LA LA LAND's Emma Stone best actress.

There are also two new Isabelle Huppert films, ELLE by maestro Paul Verhoeven, a rape revenge drama, and SOUVENIR. Ms Huppert keeps busy, there is also a new one just opened in London, THINGS TO COME, which my pal Martin liked a lot. 

We will have to go through the LFF listings in more detail for more items to look forward to. 

Only God Forgives

Nicholas Winding Refn (DRIVE) and Ryan Gosling (THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES) reunite in the highly acclaimed ONLY GOD FORGIVES, a stylish, mesmerising and thrilling journey though Bangkok's criminal underworld. Julian (Gosling) runs a boxing club in Bangkok as a front for a drugs operation. Then his brother kills a prostitute and is himself murdered, then his mother (the head of a criminal organisation) arrives to collect her son's body and demands revenge. Furious with grief, she dispatches Julian to find his killers and raise hell. The stage is set for a bloody journey of betrayal and vengance towards a final confrontation and the possibility of redemption. Hailed as "mesmeric, mad, brutal and brilliant" by THE GUARDIAN newspaper, ONLY GOD FORGIVES is a twisted, breathtaking, neon-drenched fairytale that you'll never forget!

Well, wow, and wow again. ONLY GOD FORGIVES is something else. I don't usually go for ultra violence or torture porn, but sometimes a film is so stylish and flash that it all becomes like a cartoon. If you liked KILL BILL or DRIVE or EASTERN PROMISES, then you will love this. Every shot is dazzling, with camera sets up and colours you want to look at (it looks as enticing as IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE). 

DRIVE was one of the best films of the millennium, hands down. This Thailand-set revenge saga feels like a natural extension of that masterpiece, albeit with maybe boring and pretentious moments. One could say the brutality on show here is pointless and nasty as when Julian's brother murders an underage prostitute, the police call on retired cop Chang - the Angel of Vengeance, who dispenses his own summary justice .... 

However, the neon-lit cinematography is simply stunning and quite often disguises the senselessness of what is actually going on, whilst the ballsy performance from Kristen Scott Thomas as Gosling's reprehensible white-trash mother is a terrific display of her versatility. Its a jaw-dropping performance - her vile, foul-mouth mother is a total contrast to her roles in French movies like DANS LE MAISON (IN THE HOUSE) or LEAVING. Gosling has maybe 20 lines,but this and THE THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES confirm now mesmerising he is on screen, though that one did not work for me. 

F W B -v- Crazy Stupid ...

I love that moment when a film surprises you, when you put on a film you expect nothing much from and you absolutely love it and get really involved with it. So it was with FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS, one of last year's romcoms which I have now lent to a friend, and will want to see it again when I get it back. Paradoxically, the movie I thought I would enjoy CRAZY STUPID LOVE did not engage me at all and I found a lot to dislike in it.

Justin and Woody

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS has an engaging couple: Justin Timberlake who is now proving himself as an actor and leading man - is it really 10 years since I was watching him in those pop videos like for his hit "Cry Me A River" and "Rock Your Body" and I loved that one with Nelly "Work It" which was on MTV all the time, they are hilarious together, and Justin's albums then were very playable too - and Mila Kunis, so good in BLACK SWAN. He is the LA guy whom she headhunts for GQ magazine in New York, where he is taken in hand by Woody Harrelson, the gay best friend with a difference. It is all amusingly depicted, great soundtrack too, as our cute couple decide to be friends with benefits - sex without emotion - but as he says later he is now getting the emotion without the sex.  Add in her kookie mother (Patricia Clarkson) and his dad (Richard Jenkins) in the early stages of Alzheimers ... it all resolves nicely and takes one to places one did not expect to go, as ably directed by Will Gluck and written by Keith Merryman and others.

I reviewed the previous film by Glenn Ficcara and John Requa I LOVE YOU PHILIP MORRIS (gay interest label) a while ago and while I found it engaging enough (their script for BAD SANTA is also very amusing) I just did not respond to STUPID CRAZY LOVE as much. The problem for me, as with the recent BRIDESMAIDS, is that these "Saturday Night Live" people are just not known here in England as SNL does not play here, so I had never seen Kristen Wiig before, nor Steve Carell here (well I had no interest in seeing THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN!).  Here he is the dull decent guy whose wife Julianne Moore suddenly asks for a divorce after 25 years of marriage.

Womaniser around town Ryan Gosling takes our hapless guy under his wing and smartens him up and gets him on the dating circuit so he starts to meet all those other women - Marisa Tomei scores again here - and there are various plot complications and some yucky moments too. Again, there is a plot development I did not see coming ....

Are we though meant to find the 13 year old son obsessed about the 17 year old babysitter amusing ? - he won't take no for an answer and is practically abusing her by ignoring her wishes, while she of course secretly loves his father. Fairly amusing then but not as involving as F W B. 

Drive he said

DRIVE certain delivers! To all those other classic iconic cinema loners (think Travis Bickle in TAXI DRIVER, that other Ryan (O'Neal) in Walter Hill's THE DRIVER (1978) with the suitably enigmatic Isabelle Adjani, Julian Kaye in AMERICAN GIGOLO (any Schrader hero will do!) or Heath Ledger's Ennis Del Mar locked into himself eating his solitary meal in the diner in BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN - there are echoes of them all here (as well as those lone killers Alain Delon in Melville's LE SAMURAI, Lee Marvin in Boorman's POINT BLANK, Walter Matthau in Siegel's CHARLEY VARRICK) - now there is Ryan Gosling's nameless driver in this character-driven, slow-burn thriller of the first order that features elements of some of the finer works from directors like Scorsese, Michael Mann, Tarantino, Walter Hill and Sam Peckinpah, as directed here by a director new to me, Nicolas Winding Refn. It will be interesting to see what he does next...

The film is an electric mixture of beautiful lingering cinematography, a pulsating soundtrack, lean dialogue and short bursts of graphic, bloody violence. It's tense and involving; almost impossible not to get immersed in.

Ryan Gosling is the embodiment of cool, as the well-intentioned but unstoppable force who works as stunt driver, garage hand and occasional driver for robberies. His solitary life is interrupted when he slowly gets involved with the girl down the hall and her little son, while her husband is in prison. Once the husband is out, the driver is drawn into a heist which of course goes wrong, putting him, the girl and the boy in danger. We are dealing with terrifying men here and the action is suitably graphic for the various slayings. One memorable scene is in an elevator with the driver and the girl as he realises the other guy has a gun and is after them, as time slows down ... and then speeds up. I love the look of the film, all those night scenes, the often dark and dream-like LA setting, the driving, the music, Carey Milligan is marvellous again and suggests so much with so little dialogue, as does Gosling. I am now looking forward to seeing him in CRAZY STUPID LOVE and THE IDES OF MARCH. That ending too is perfect ... In all, a movie I want to sit my friends down in front of and make them love it too. And you can cut out and dress up Ryan too ...