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 Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late? 
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Cream of the Crop
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Post Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late?
Saturday Night Live is one of the leading proponents of the backlash, and got in a good shot on Weekend Update on this week's Kristen Stewart episode:
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The White House responded to criticism of the travel ban saying they're not banning Muslims, they're just banning people from seven Muslim majority countries, Which is sort of like saying, 'We're not banning white people, we're just banning people who love La La Land'.



The case against 'La La Land'
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La La Land is a film that does not, in many aspects, live up to its accolades, especially compared with other Oscar nominees such as Moonlight. Its chief selling point — to the audience and awards voters alike — is its nostalgic revival of the "Old Hollywood" movie musical, yet its music is one of its weakest aspects. While some numbers, like opener Another Day of Sun, are ambitious in scope and musicality, others, like City of Stars (which surprisingly beat out a Lin-Manuel Miranda-penned song for the Globe), are lackluster and dull. Oscar nominees Gosling and Stone, while great actors, are also simply not truly trained singers, and their thin vocals are evident throughout the film. While the choice is intentional and might endear some to the performances, it's distracting and takes you out of the fantasy the film is attempting to create.

Also thinly drawn is Stone's character, Mia, a hollow person that the movie shortchanges in favor of focusing more on Gosling's Sebastian. Mia's backstory is brushed over, and her talent and struggle are never portrayed as fully as Sebastian's. A one-woman show she writes and self-finances is the crux of her journey in the film, yet the audience sees almost nothing of the show itself, let alone the effort she put into producing it. Her big break at the end of the movie (an audition for a "big movie" as nonspecific as her character) feels unearned.

Sebastian's storyline is not without its flaws. His character has been called a "white savior" by critics including Wired, New York Magazine and MTV News for his quest (and eventual success) to save the traditionally black musical genre from extinction, seemingly the only person who can accomplish such a goal. As MTV News notes, in the film "no one is as gifted at tickling the ivories as Gosling and his pearly white hands," adding, "If you’re gonna make a film about an artist staying true to the roots of jazz against the odds and against modern reinventions of the genre (from white musicians like, say, Mayer Hawthorne), you'd think that artist would be black."



'La La Land' and the Oscars: Why the Movie Attracts Haters
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The “La La Land” backlash has been brewing for months now, but at this point it’s almost impossible to champion the movie without looking stupid or like you’re winner-take-all bullying: The “Saturday Night Live” interrogation scene with Aziz Ansari is so diamond sharp that to defend this film now is a bit like trying to make a heavy metal album in the aftermath of “This is Spinal Tap.” (“They’re just regular people! Falling in love and singing!” could replace “This one goes to 11” among a certain set.)



Let’s Not Make The Oscar Race The Story Of ‘La La Land’ Vs. ‘Moonlight’
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Three years ago, film writer Mark Harris perfectly summed up how conversations about Best Picture nominees tend to go down. He called it The Balls Argument, and it goes like this: “If Academy voters had any balls, they would give the Best Picture Oscar to ‘X.’ However, Academy voters have no balls. Therefore, they will give Best Picture to ‘Y.'”

As Harris explained, an “X” film is usually “dark, cynical, existential or nihilist, physically or emotionally violent, R-rated, and somewhat savage in outlook. They are often by, about, and for the alienated, the skeptical, and the enraged.” Examples of “X” films from Oscars’ past include Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction, and Brokeback Mountain – each one a wronged masterpiece that was overlooked in the Best Picture category in favor of a “Y” film.

Harris defined a “Y” film is as “bromidic, blandly messagey, or hopelessly anodyne … When they’re not telling you that everything will be OK, they’re addressing important subjects with noncontroversial philosophical shrugs (racism is bad; if you repress emotions, they’ll come back to hurt you; we’re all connected).” Example include Best Picture winners such as Ordinary People, Dances With Wolves, Forrest Gump, and Crash.


Sun Feb 05, 2017 5:21 am
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Post Re: Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late?
It's the best of the three I've seen, and I'll probably even watch it again for the musical numbers, but the jizzing must stop.


Sun Feb 05, 2017 1:54 pm
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Post Re: Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late?
Nope. The only way LLL loses is if Trump endorses it.


Sun Feb 05, 2017 3:06 pm
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Post Re: Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late?
You would think that Hollywood would be the last place to support Trump's racist agenda, so will they really ignore #OscarsSoWhite and vote for a movie featuring whitesplaining jazz to black people?

The Unbearable Whiteness of La La Land

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The film is an achievement of a sort—it’s beautiful and charming, if one doesn’t think too hard. He’s even done the work to feature a few characters of color at the margins of the action, a gesture that insulates the film from the outright racial ignorance of the musicals to which Chazelle pays homage. But these efforts at contemporary posture, quite literally, pale in the face of the film’s white nostalgia. La La Land isn’t the escapism America needs right now, it’s a regressive effort at time travel with no sense of shame for America’s many historical sins. Chazelle engages in the most dangerous type of cultural production: to have an audience feel without thinking. In this case that means the past seems like a good enough place to escape our current problems. The film isn’t as far as you might think from the asinine phraseology of “Make America Great Again.”


Mon Feb 06, 2017 6:24 am
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Post Re: Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late?
Lmao. I bet the white person that wrote that article feels really really good about themselves right now. "I made up for slavery today. No need to thank me."

And this kind of snobby in fighting among liberals is totally not the reason Trump won in the first place. ;)


Mon Feb 06, 2017 12:09 pm
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Post Re: Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late?
Lol, LLL is fine, people still love it. Giving Moonlight the Oscar wouldn't be nearly enough of a "Fuck you Trump" to gel among voters.

Which is funny because it's just Pence that doesn't like gay marriage. Trump supports LGBT and the African American community. He once said "by 2020, I'll have 95% if the black vote."


Mon Feb 06, 2017 12:19 pm
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Post Re: Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late?
Yes, trump supports the black community. That is a true statement.

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Mon Feb 06, 2017 12:20 pm
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Post Re: Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late?
I have no idea where the "music is not memorable" criticism is coming from.

I was very impressed with most of the songs and the score as a whole.


Mon Feb 06, 2017 12:46 pm
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Post Re: Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late?
The instrumental jazz stuff is lame. But the musical and dance sequences except the John Legend song was wonderful.


Mon Feb 06, 2017 12:47 pm
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Post Re: Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late?
LOL. The music and the lyrics are complete and utter musical cliche. Everybody who says different must have not heard/seen many musicals.


Mon Feb 06, 2017 1:17 pm
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Post Re: Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late?
you answered your own question in the first post

also, if you really think this movie whitesplains jazz to black people, you clearly weren't paying attention

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Mon Feb 06, 2017 1:22 pm
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Post Re: Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late?
_axiom wrote:
LOL. The music and the lyrics are complete and utter musical cliche. Everybody who says different must have not heard/seen many musicals.


I've seen plenty. :yes:

Also, the John Legend song is kinda supposed to be mediocre.


Mon Feb 06, 2017 1:24 pm
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Post Re: Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late?
Your guide to the 'La La Land' backlash


1) The movie is a little dull.

“The movie sags badly in the middle, like a worn-out mattress that needs new springs. Months of separation ... has a wearing effect on the film’s trajectory while you patiently wait, hoping something will move the plot along.”

2) Mr. Gosling and Ms. Stone aren’t exceptional singers or dancers.

Sure, they’re both incredibly talented actors — but when it comes to the all-important singing and dancing, they’re nothing like the Hollywood stars of musicals to which “La La Land” is often compared.

3) The jazz issue.

Mr. Gosling’s character, Sebastian, dreams of saving his beloved genre, which he feels is crumbling. Music writers have some serious issues with how jazz is presented in the film, from Vulture’s “ ‘La La Land’ is clueless about what is actually happening in jazz” to Slate’s “ ‘La La Land’ may be a great movie about dreams, but about jazz, it’s a muddle of cliches.”

4) The “white savior” aspect.

Sebastian has been criticized for his “whitesplaining” of jazz, a genre that started in the black community. “If you’re gonna make a film about an artist staying true to the roots of jazz against the odds and against modern reinventions of the genre (from white musicians like, say, Mayer Hawthorne), you’d think that artist would be black,” MTV News wrote.

5) The movie’s own awards season narrative.

The “La La Land” narrative has revolved around the idea that no one wanted to make the movie because it was a musical, and an unknown quantity, which is quite risky in Hollywood. However, many pointed out that musicals are actually a popular concept lately, on both TV and film.

6) Ms. Stone’s character.

Chazelle is interested in Mia not as a character or as a person but as an ornament

7) Mr. Gosling’s character.

Some find him and his jazz obsession insufferable; the Guardian deems Sebastian “every bad date you ever had”

8) People loving the movie (or hating it) for the wrong reasons.

“The embrace of ‘La La Land’ by critics and award-giving bodies alike, speaks more to a kind of desperation for a movie like ‘La La Land’ than ‘La La Land’s’ own efficacy”


Tue Feb 07, 2017 7:16 am
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Post Re: Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late?
Who does Seb "whitesplain" jazz to?


Tue Feb 07, 2017 6:15 pm
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Post Re: Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late?
Yep. Just like it stopped Birdman, The Artist, Argo, The King's Speech, Slumdog Millionaire, and every other movie that had an unbelievable amount of momentum going into the Oscars.


Tue Feb 07, 2017 9:30 pm
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Post Re: Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late?
The La La Land backlash: why have critics turned on the Oscar favorite?
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Sebastian romanticizes Parker simply because he lived and died before jazz started to change for the first time. But it’s impossible to separate jazz from black history, and it’s downright foolish to do so in a film by, for and largely about white people. It’s especially dangerous right now. Geoff Nelson at Paste Magazine links the film’s traditionalism and the satisfaction derived from its nostalgia to the Trump campaign’s backwards-looking ethos: “There lies a profound irony in liberal white folks heading to La La Land to repair after a political season overflowing with the nostalgia of white supremacy.”
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Hidden Figures pulled off an upset at the SAG Awards two weeks ago, earning the prize for best ensemble, which is sometimes seen a precursor for best picture (La La Land, weirdly, was not nominated). When the story of the year in cinema is written, we may say that La La Land peaked too early, or that it was the right film at the wrong time, or that its other, less political criticisms – the story is a little thin, the characters don’t particularly sing or dance very well, and it may be just too self-indulgent for its own good – were exposed after its shine finally wore off. For now, we will have to wait to see if Hollywood is more interested in looking forward or looking back.




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Who does Seb "whitesplain" jazz to?
Anyone who will listen.


Wed Feb 08, 2017 6:07 am
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Post Re: Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late?
hidden figures is even more "whitesplain-y" than la la land. it's in the same boat as crash, the blind side, the help - a white man's view of racism.

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Wed Feb 08, 2017 9:38 am
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Post Re: Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late?
La La Land isn't losing. And it won't be close.

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Wed Feb 08, 2017 11:12 am
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Post Re: Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late?
Can 'La La Land' Still Win the Oscar With All This Bad Buzz?
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There is talk that Emma Stone isn't the lock for Best Actress that she has seemed to be so far, but that Isabelle Huppert could surprise with a win for "Elle." The theory goes: Stone was good in "La La Land" but not Oscar good, while Huppert, the veteran French actress who'd never been nominated before, gave the performance of her career. Both actresses won at the Golden Globes (where musicals and dramas are separate categories), but East Coast Oscar voters supposedly prefer the prestigious foreign thespian over the Hollywood starlet playing a Hollywood starlet. Of course, the Hollywood-based voters who might find Stone's role more resonant far outnumber the East Coast voters, but if they split their vote between Stone and Natalie Portman (for "Jackie"), Huppert could slip in.

It's true, "La La Land" has some clear flaws. Stone and Ryan Gosling are game troupers, but as singers and dancers, they're not exactly Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds. Some critics have found fault with the movie's plotting (warning: spoiler alert!), which seems to torpedo the couple's romance over seemingly easily resolvable scheduling issues.

More troubling is all the fault-finding over the movie's politics. "What politics?" you may ask. Well, there's the movie's treatment of jazz. It seems weird that the character who wants to save the struggling music by returning it to its roots is a white pianist played by Gosling, while the character who supposedly wants to sell jazz out by watering it down with pop hooks and stage dancers is black bandleader John Legend. Real jazz musicians will tell you that this is a whitewash, a distortion of jazz history, and a gross oversimplification of complex trends in the music that jazz players have been arguing about for 50 years.

But the jazz issue is just a symptom of the movie's bigger political problem: its nearly all-white cast. It's an awfully monochrome depiction, not only of what the film's Hollywood setting actually looks like, but of what America looks like.

"Moonlight" director Barry Jenkins told the "Awards Show Show"podcast, "I wasn't on set thinking, 'I'm going to make a film that can take down the 'white, fascist musical.'


Thu Feb 09, 2017 7:41 am
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Post Re: Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late?
I surely hope Huppert wins over Stone.


Thu Feb 09, 2017 7:57 am
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Post Re: Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late?
lol "bad buzz"

oh bradley

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shut the fuck up zwackerm, you're out of your fucking element

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Thu Feb 09, 2017 10:22 am
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Post Re: Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late?
Finally someone else complains about the ending! A real legitimate problem with the movie that doesn't have to do with fake racism!

They ruin the article by going back to the fake racism immediately after, but you almost found a good counter argument there Bradley.


Thu Feb 09, 2017 1:17 pm
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Post Re: Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late?
Things often get overthought around Oscar time. La La Land is the winner. No more thinking required.

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Thu Feb 09, 2017 3:10 pm
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Post Re: Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late?
I thought it would be Moonlight that saved us all from the shame of a La La Land best picture Oscar, but with the pivotal SAG cast award and breaking into the lead as the highest grossing best picture nominee, Hidden Figures has captured the momentum at just the right time - it's going to blast past Moonlight and La La Land to take this year's Academy Award for Best Picture!

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Sat Feb 11, 2017 7:37 am
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Post Re: Can the backlash stop La La Land before it's too late?
Oh, put a sock in it! La La Land is winning. End of.

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Sat Feb 11, 2017 8:30 am
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