8.3 | / 10 |
Users | 3.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 3.3 |
Mia, an aspiring actress, serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions and Sebastian, a jazz musician, scrapes by playing cocktail party gigs in dingy bars, but as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend, Rosemarie DeWitt, Finn WittrockDrama | 100% |
Musical | 34% |
Romance | 29% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.55:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.55:1
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
English: Dolby Digital 2.0 (224 kbps)
English, English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
UV digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
It's really exciting to be able to review the winner of this year's Academy Award for Best Picture. What's that? Oh, that's right — I reviewed Moonlight several weeks ago. Okay, now that we have
that silly
joke and/or cultural reference out of the way. . .
You either like (and/or love) musicals, or you don’t. My hunch is not that many folks would argue with that premise, which seems to be true of
many, maybe even most, moviegoers, since there really doesn’t seem to be that much of a “middle ground” in terms of responses to this particular
genre. I, for one, am an unabashed lover of musicals, and count several of them as among my all time favorite films. The film musical’s popularity
has ebbed and flowed pretty dramatically over the years, something I mentioned in terms of one of its more unexpected ebbs in my recent How to Succeed in Business
Without Really Trying Blu-ray review. Several more ebbs followed the rather surprising one that occurred for at least a year or two in the wake
of the incredibly successful The Sound of Music,
with
periodic flows which included a brief burst in the early seventies which saw the rise of Fiddler on the Roof and Cabaret,
and
again decades later with the release of Chicago.
The years since
Chicago could probably be described as kind of a mixed bag in terms of artistic quality and box office appeal, with some films like The Phantom of the Opera getting pilloried by the
critics and failing to really catch fire at the box office, while others like
Les Misérables faring at least somewhat better with critics and a good deal better with the ticket buying populace. All of the
aforementioned films had at least one thing in common, though, namely that they were all based on pre-existing (and quite successful) stage
versions. Musicals written expressly for film have had an at least somewhat similar history, with some grabbing the brass ring and others—well,
missing it.
“Lesser” musicals with no stage antecedents were fairly common in the 1950s especially, but started to be less prevalent in the 1960s,
though interestingly in 1968, the one relatively immediate post-Sound of Music year that boasted a significant stage to film adaptation hit of
immense proportions (Oliver!), the original musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang failed to live up to the
records set by the previous original film musical with a song score by the venerable Sherman Brothers*, Mary Poppins, still one of the most popular and most beloved musicals of all time,
whether culled from a stage version or not. Also kind of interestingly, many of the most popular original movie musicals of the past several decades
have also come from Disney, albeit in animated form (
Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid
3D, et al.). (It’s almost ironic that Disney is now recycling its animated musical fare as both stage shows and even live action films, as in
the case of the “new” Beauty and the Beast.)
I’m reaching for the heightsIronically enough, one of the tunes that resonated the most strongly with me was the supposed “awful” fusion number “Start a Fire”. It’s obvious (to me, anyway) that Hurwitz is trying to (in at least some of his material) evoke some of the wistful feeling of Michel Legrand’s music for the Demy films mentioned above, but for me his efforts simply don’t have Legrand’s sparkle or motivic intelligence. I also found it a little hard to reconcile Sebastian’s supposed jazz proclivities with the Tchaikovsky-esque love theme he keeps noodling on the piano. All of this said, as a longtime lounge pianist myself, I have to say Sebastian’s interchanges with a frustrated club owner (J.K. Simmons, who won an Oscar for Chazelle’s takedown of jazz instructors, Whiplash) struck me as all too realistic. (For those interested, it's also kind of interesting to contrast Mia's big emotional song "Audition (The Fools Who Dream)" with another song by another composer built around an actress' trials to land a job while a relationship is falling apart, "Climbing Uphill" from The Last Five Years.)
And chasing all the lights that shine.
La La Land is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in the good old CinemaScope ratio of 2.55:1. Chazelle continues his retro tendencies by shooting on film, and with director of photography Linus Sandgren delivers a really gorgeous looking film which looks fantastic in high definition. This is a film full of the kind of bright colors and patently artificial lighting that were part and parcel of both the Freed unit and the Demy films, and this transfer preserves a really appealingly varied palette beautifully. The film tends to ping pong between naturally lit and/or graded material (as in the opening freeway number) and more "artistic" choices, as in some of the nighttime material or the big planetarium sequence. Detail levels are routinely high, especially in brighter lighting, as should be expected. While the nighttime and club scenes don't have quite the same detail levels, there's surprisingly good shadow detail and definition throughout these sequences as well. The transfer looks appealingly organic and encounters no compression issues.
La La Land's Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 core) mix is a wonder to behold from before the imagery ever starts, with a cacophonous array of traffic noise and radio "dials" being jiggered with, all of which leads to a beautifully immersive listening experience, with effects clearly emerging from various channels and (in the Atmos mix) even overhead. The song sequences all feature great surround activity and (again) Hurwitz's really effective orchestrations sound clear and forceful throughout (I especially loved some of the gossamer vibraphone and glockenspiel elements). Crowd scenes, including clubs, parties and even the backlot of a movie studio, also provide great opportunities for discrete channelization. Dialogue is also rendered cleanly on this problem free and very enjoyable track.
- What a Waste of a Lovely Night (1080p; 1:55)
- City of Stars (1080p; 3:13)
- Theatrical Trailer 1 (1080p; 1:35)
- Theatrical Trailer 2 (1080p; 1:33)
- Theatrical Trailer 3 (1080p; 2:14)
- Poster Gallery (1080p)
It's been kind of interesting seeing reactions to La La Land since it came out. I have some friends who think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, and others who think it's a decidedly overrated piece of triviality. I actually like and admire large swaths of the film. It's bright and breezy, the staging and choreography of the songs are both very effective , and the performances are all extremely enjoyable as well (though for my money Gosling and Stone are better dancers than singers). For me personally, I just wish the songs had been more emotionally resonant. This Blu-ray presentation offers superior technical merits and an enjoyable supplementary package. Highly recommended.
2016
w/ 30 minutes of additional content
2016
2016
w/ bonus content
2016
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