The critically-acclaimed La La Land swept America off its feet and into a whirlwind of jazz music, Hollywood glamour, and romance at the end of 2016. The whimsical story follows Mia, a struggling actress played by Emma Stone, and Sebastian, an aspiring jazz musician played by Ryan Gosling, through a rocky though beautiful romance in the grand city of Los Angeles (La La Land). Both characters find ultimate success, with Mia rising to Hollywood stardom after being cast in a large movie and Sebastian opening an underground jazz club, though their lives become too distant to rekindle their relationship (La La Land). Film critics and teenagers alike praise the film for its abstract direction, memorable score, and themes of reality and nostalgia.
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For me, it provided a true escape from the racial and political tension of the outside world. The score, set, and costumes were all vibrant and pulsed with a surreal energy that isn’t present in many modern films. I also loved seeing an romantic movie with a realistic outcome for the two protagonists. While the film lacked underlying social or cultural that were prominent in other films such as Moonlight and Hidden Figures, it appeared to be innocently unrelated to the turbulent atmosphere of 2016; upon further reflection, I realized that despite La La Land’s brilliant execution, it utterly disregarded the context of its release, making its lack of social undertones culturally insensitive. The most obvious example is the absence of black actors in a film whose main motif is jazz music, an African-American originated genre. Sebastian is a white traditionalist in the jazz world who criticizes the modernization of jazz though it originated as a modernizing genre that complemented and fueled the wild culture of the 1920s (La La Land). Furthermore, the modernization of jazz is promoted by the only named black musician, played by John Legend, and his character is viewed as a musician who made artistic sacrifices to superficially appeal to a wider audience. The portrayal of jazz is not only racially tone deaf to those who created and fostered it, but it also ignores the elements of
For me, it provided a true escape from the racial and political tension of the outside world. The score, set, and costumes were all vibrant and pulsed with a surreal energy that isn’t present in many modern films. I also loved seeing an romantic movie with a realistic outcome for the two protagonists. While the film lacked underlying social or cultural that were prominent in other films such as Moonlight and Hidden Figures, it appeared to be innocently unrelated to the turbulent atmosphere of 2016; upon further reflection, I realized that despite La La Land’s brilliant execution, it utterly disregarded the context of its release, making its lack of social undertones culturally insensitive. The most obvious example is the absence of black actors in a film whose main motif is jazz music, an African-American originated genre. Sebastian is a white traditionalist in the jazz world who criticizes the modernization of jazz though it originated as a modernizing genre that complemented and fueled the wild culture of the 1920s (La La Land). Furthermore, the modernization of jazz is promoted by the only named black musician, played by John Legend, and his character is viewed as a musician who made artistic sacrifices to superficially appeal to a wider audience. The portrayal of jazz is not only racially tone deaf to those who created and fostered it, but it also ignores the elements of