...holy heck Batman it's in color! Our first color Best Picture since Gone with the Wind (#12), and our first musical since Going My Way (#17). Starring Gene Kelly as the titular character, this movie is a veritable feast for the senses. It's in the same category as the more contemporary Mamma Mia and We Will Rock You, taking the canon of a popular musical group and building a story loosely around it, in this case the Gershwins. So all the music was very familiar, using such classics as "I Got Rhythm" and "S'Wonderful." A lot about this film's look and sound became iconic for the movie musical genre. La La Land in particular pays very heavy homage to it.
The plot runs like a typical rom com that dates back to Shakespeare and beyond. Two men find themselves in love with the same woman. She was already dating one, but finds she really wants to be with the second. Meanwhile the second guy, a starving painter, finds himself the object of the attentions of yet another woman, this one rich, who wants to fund his art. Obviously complications ensue. Therefore everybody's miserable and are obliged to sing and dance to express their love for the person they can't have, and for their careers in the arts.
I really didn't find myself rooting for either guy. There are things about both of them that make me uncomfortable in their relationship with Lise, the lead female. Jerry, the American, takes the "won't take a clear no for an answer and does stalkery things like call and show up at her work until he wears her down" route of courting. This is why guys think if a woman says 'no' she means 'keep trying until I say yes.' With Lise's actual boyfriend Henri, a popular singer, there are some creepy child-grooming connotations to their history where her parents gave her to him to raise because they were in the French Resistance during the war (and presumably died), she crushed on him and then he eventually fell for her. So when she fell out of love with him, she felt she couldn't leave the relationship because she owed everything to him. Ick ick ick for both of them, even though both of their feelings for her are sincere and it's not supposed to be creepy.
While we enjoyed this way more than the last two Best Pictures, we still weren't completely grabbed. It is a classic for good reason, however, and if you liked La La Land (or were disappointed by the ending) you should give this one a spin.
Watched: May 27, 2018
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