From its feel-good original soundtrack to its spring-pastel colour palate, Damien Chazelle’s La La Land is a dizzyingly enrapturing film which employs homages to classics such as Casablanca and Singin’ in the Rain to set the scene for a picture which is both a charming love story and a life-affirming tale of early adulthood. Having swept up a record number of awards (seven) at the Golden Globes and being heavily tipped for Oscars success, the question must be levelled at La La Land: is much of its achievement simply due to its pandering to the Hollywood elite?

In recent years the claim has been made against Oscar winners The Artist (Best Picture 2012) and Birdman (Best Picture 2015), with critics lambasting the Academy for favouring work that concerns itself with favourable depictions of Hollywood and its related professions. I would like to argue that there is a fine line between navel-gazing and conscious self-evaluation, and I think that, as with The Artist and Birdman, La La Land fits into this latter category.

Throughout the millennia of human art available to us today, it is clear that one subject has always been of endless fascination to the artist: the medium they employ to create their art. With this in mind, it is worth remembering that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts Sciences is only 89 years old (the oldest surviving poem is from c.2500 B.C.E.) and that the art of cinema has for a large part of its history been dominated by one city on the west coast of America; this is not to excuse self-obsession, but merely to point out the facts.

“There is a fine line between navel-gazing and conscious self-evaluation, and I think that, as with The Artist and Birdman, La La Land fits into this latter category”

What is interesting to note is that in the past year alone there were two other efforts to spin a moving, profound story out of ‘golden age’-era Hollywood:  Hail, Caesar! and Café Society, the works of world-renowned directors, the Coen brothers and Woody Allen, respectively. However, despite sharing many of the same tropes as La La Land, both films received mixed reviews and failed to succeed at the box office.

This is largely due to these films’ lack of emotional reality, and film reviewers recognise this as an issue, even in films which praise their Holy Land. La La Land, without giving too much away, is far from the saccharine happy-go-lucky romp some reviews are setting it up as; it is a film with true depth and complexity of feeling and one which offers an honest portrayal of the difficult lives of aspiring artists in LA.

Memory and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

In this writer’s opinion, it is precisely this acknowledgement of the hardships, as well as the magical unreality, of life in the city of angels which gives La La Land its subtle and enchanting yet bittersweet feeling. It is this which means that praise for it is deserved and not merely a symptom of the ruling cinematic elite.

While its references to classic cinema could be viewed as bourgeois, it is nevertheless through its use of homage that the film is able to transcend our expectations and is ultimately able to help us confront and destabilise the flimsy veneer of Hollywood perfection that we all wish added sheen to our lives