La La Land, the Golden Globe winning modern musical about the love between an aspiring actress and a jazz musician who longs to save classic jazz, only to have to pick between their dreams or each other, has caused commotion among few people on the more liberal side. Many people around the world are talking about it as being the best movie of all time, beating the Titanic, while the rest are baffled by the fact that some people can't see the politically incorrect flaws.
Twitter is one major source of media flying with opinions on this film and it’s actors, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. User @happierman tweeted, “La La Land is the America that Make America Great Again imagines: white washed, uncritically nostalgic, almost no musical numbers”, which was something a lot of people agreed with. Many sources explain what Make America Great Again means to white Americans compared to everyone else within the film.
La La Land was a sense of escapism for many people, but mainly white, or American people. Critiques mention the nostalgic feeling it gave white Americans because it reminded us of the good ol’ days when things were simpler...for Americans. The use of this was shown through an old look/style that we all did kind of love, and even the main characters felt some nostalgia as Mia wished for old style films and Seb wanted to bring back classic jazz. In reality, when was America ever really that great?
“A McClatchy poll on the eve of the election found 56 percent of America’s white population believed life was better in the 1950s, and, according to the same poll, 72 percent of likely Trump voters agreed. Meanwhile, 62 percent of black voters thought contemporary life was better. The 2016 election wasn’t a chasm into which the nation fell, it was a time machine into which many white Americans hoped to escape” (pastemagazine). Although there are many perks of the 50’s and 60’s, things were not necessarily fair for all types of people within our country. It seems odd that with today’s current political climate, in America especially, that La La Land would be considered the greatest movie of all time.
One of the biggest issues that exemplified white washing, was the use of white actors portraying jazz culture. Although they did a stellar performance, which is argued, they weren’t black, and “with the ongoing discrimination black people face today, erasing them from their own culture is a serious issue that should not be ignored” (affinitymagazine). The film does include black actors that play as a jazz band, but then Ryan Gosling's character “unironically saves jazz from black sellouts” (CNN) who don’t even get to play the jazz that is from their own culture, which is probably the reason many people felt it didn’t oppose discrimination. This happens today with many movies when casting characters in a movie that defines a certain culture. The fact that Ryan Gosling had to practice piano for eight hours a day for three months in order to fully appropriate the jazz, might have affected some people's view on the movie.
Also, the performance by Gosling and Stone was not the best it could be for, especially for a musical. Many people can argue that it wasn’t really a musical at all, but rather a movie about music. However, without these musical numbers, it might not have had as big of a nostalgic effect.
In the end, the story of love was the most important of the whole film, but today's audiences want messages to be portrayed through films that can change the minds of people who are struggling to understand a current world issue. For example, a film “that happens to star African-Americans and highlight African-American concerns” (CNN) and basically just stick to the present day might be something more audiences would appreciate. That way it is fair for everyone. I mean, speaking of nostalgia, “how could a person of color long for a past bleaker than the already admittedly bleak present?” (pastemagazine). The fact is that white americans have never been through a lot of the discrimination issues that people of color have been through, so they assume that this is a movie that can identify with everyone. In some ways it can, if it’s watched from the eyes of love, but in others it can’t. Hopefully people can soon understand what many other people haven’t yet, even if they think, “it’s just a movie”.
