Dream twitter controversy8/18/2023 ![]() If you were psyched to see Gosling and Stone reignite their Crazy Stupid Love chemistry, you probably loved it. Your reaction to the final 15 minutes of the film likely depends on if you bought into everything that came before it. Some find it wise some find it cynical as hell. For example, when the movie ended my girlfriend turned to me and said, "Fuck that movie." It's divisive. But for others, the ending is yet another example of what the New Yorker's Richard Brody referred to in his brutal (though not unfair) review of the film as "artistic and cinematic crudeness." It inspires strong reactions. La La Land might leave you emotionally wrecked in a good way, sobbing on your friend's sleeve and reflecting on the ways love can define a life. "The film ends with an affectionate, wistful kiss goodbye, a sublime sequence that might guarantee the film's good fortune at the Oscars." Lionsgate Oh, the ending," wrote Vanity Fair's Richard Lawson back in September. Vulture deemed it "uncharacteristically subtle." Other critics have been even more rapturous. (Chazelle has explained that the ending was actually inspired by the 1927 silent film 7th Heaven.) It's a reminder that life is a series of choices, but it also suggests that two realities can intermingle.įor some viewers, this ambitious sequence is the movie's crowning achievement. Like similarly melancholy sequences in films like the Coen brothers' Raising Arizona or Spike Lee's 25th Hour, it's a bittersweet vision of the road not taken tinged with ambiguity. She imagines an alternate life for herself, one where she and Seb stayed together forever and forged a beautiful life filled with dancing and homages to French filmmaker Jacques Demy. From a purely career-oriented perspective, this could scan as the beginning of a happy ending.īut upon hearing the opening notes of "Mia & Sebastian's Theme," Mia's mind takes flight. Like Stone, he's achieved a version of his personal artistic dream, operating a seemingly successful club that specializes in the type of "pure jazz" he earnestly advocates for throughout the film. ![]() They decide to walk into a jazz club, which happens to be owned by Gosling's Seb. ![]() She's got a daughter now and her husband is played by Tom Everett Scott, who portrayed a fellow jazz-loving drummer in That Thing You Do! To viewers who worship Tom Hanks' '90s movie, you might say she traded up from Gosling's earnest pianist seriously, Guy Patterson could jam and he was in The Wonders.įrom there, we watch her head out for a night on the town with her hubby, getting stuck in one of those LA traffic jams that was so endearing at the beginning of the movie but now takes on a drab, dreary quality. Cut to five years later, when La La Land reveals her as a rich, successful actress. After nailing a big audition, striving artist Mia (Stone) earns the opportunity of a lifetime. But after pirouetting through a year's worth of seasons, the ending time jumps into the future to upend expectations. On the surface, La La Land could not look more innocuous: Charming piano man Ryan Gosling wears a suit and dances with delightful coffee shop employee Emma Stone across old Hollywood backlots. So with the musical expanding into more theaters this weekend, a road that should lead it straight to the Best Picture category in February, let's take a look at what exactly the arguments are on both sides. Depending on your interpretation, the film's finale will leave you with a tear in your eye - or make you shake your jazz-fusion-loving fist at the screen in sputtering rage.įor most moviegoers, the ending of La La Land is the first thing you'll talk about during your long, dance-filled walk to find your car in the multiplex parking lot. La vie boheme, you know?īut over the past few weeks, as the Oscar talk has heated up, director Damien Chazelle's love letter to Los Angeles has become a whimsical lightning rod for conversations about mansplaining, whitewashing, and, of course, jazz, baby! Then there's the ending, a dream-like narrative flight of fancy that doesn't strike the same hopeful (or some might argue naive) tone as the chipper trailers and the sun-dappled opening number. It's an inspiring, populist message that has driven the movie to box-office success: This one's for the strivers, the rebels, and the "real" artists. "Here's to the ones who dream," sings Emma Stone during her big number in La La Land, the acclaimed musical likely to pick up awards at this Sunday's Golden Globes. Warning: This post contains spoilers for the movie La La Land and discusses the ending of the movie in detail.
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