With more than just echoes of classics from An American in Paris to Singin' In the Rain, there is hardly anything original about La La Land. Like fellow best picture nominee (and winner) The Artist, La La Land borrows its best scenes and ideas from earlier films. The tale it spins is predictable and comforting, coasting on the easy chemistry of leads Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Their reality show-quality singing and dancing is an unintentionally depressing reminder of just how far stardom can get someone with mediocre talent.
The racial politics of the film are also hard to ignore. Here we see a white man claiming, several times, that he will save jazz music, even as the African American musicians play the music they invented behind him, out of focus and ignored. In a film which is so much about jazz music, it is hard to watch so many white characters claim it as their own. Even John Legend's shoehorned cameo as Gosling's only black friend stinks of the 'Oscars so white' controversy of last year, in which an all-white roster of acting nominees was clumsily offset by a host of diverse last-minute presenters.
In a year which has seen so many celebrities make pointed political statements at the awards podium, the draw of the simplicity and escapism provided by La La Land may be stronger than the challenge presented by films such as Moonlight, which tells the story of a black gay man as he grows from an abusive childhood to a drug dealing adulthood. Once again, Hollywood is rewarding a film about itself - specifically, the white, wealthy, creative, joyous version it has created for the world to see.
