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MT 22 January 2017

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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 22 JANUARY 2017 38 This Week DIRECTOR Damien Chazelle has some clear ideas about the art vs life divide. The fact that there should be a divide between the two phenomena is already a clear enough decision by the young and able filmmaker, who astounded us last year with the Oscar-winning jazz-drummer prodigy drama Whiplash. As that film explored with thrilling abandon, one can either be a great artist or lead an emotionally fulfilling and healthy life. You can't have both. And although his subsequent feature, La La Land – which is also enjoying awards-attention, hav- ing swept the major Golden Globe Awards, for a start – appears to be tonally opposed to the gritty and sometimes blood-soaked obses- sive odyssey that is Whiplash, it shares thematic similarities with the former film in a way that is not entirely flattering. The musical love story follows two characters on similar-but- different trajectories. Mia (Emma Stone) is an aspiring actress cur- rently working as a barista on a studio lot while, Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) is a jazz pianist with a puritan streak for the art form reduced to playing in restaurants to make ends meet. Mia pines for stardom, Sebastian pines for the capital to set up his own jazz club – one which would serve as a fertile melting pot for bona fide jazz musicians to ply their trade and ensure the fledgling genre's survival. A spot of road rage threatens to undermine the prospective cou- ple's meet-cute, but after the two get over that particular obstacle, they hit it off with gusto, discov- ering that they are kindred spirits pursuing fragile dreams in a cyni- cal world. Frustrated by fruitless and often humiliating acting audi- tions, Mia is encouraged by Sebas- tian to stage (and self-finance) her own one-woman show. The surge of confidence gives the couple an equivalent uplift. But when opportunity comes knocking at Sebastian's door with the promise of commercial suc- cess but middling artistic satisfac- tion, the realities of the arrange- ment threaten to undermine Mia and Sebastian's bubble of roman- tic happiness. Like Whiplash, La La Land is a tightly edited and choreographed film, and its musical interludes – most of them consisting of hardly inspired throwbacks to classics like Singin' in the Rain – are wo- ven into the proceedings in a deft way that certainly won't grate with non-fans of the musical genre. But the film's vibrant palette is always in evidence, and the bursts of technicolour never feel out of place, even when they're sudden. This is because Chazelle makes a clear connection between the mu- sical's tendency towards reverie and the protagonists' own wistful dreams. Singing and dancing – heightened with a dash of the fan- tastic – is the currency of dreams, and their inner life. The flip-side to all of this, of course, is that reality has to come knocking at some point. Cha- zelle's idea to upend the fantasy by showing it as being just that is a good one for a film with such mainstream reach, but it still hinges on a bit of a cliché. As with Whiplash, the film operates on the assumption that it's just about impossible to be both a successful artist and an emotionally fulfilled person. You have to pick one, ap- parently. The fact that Chazelle – who also wrote the screenplay to La La Land – treats this as a bona fide Truth hampers the film's in- tegrity somewhat. Even more so because truthful moments are otherwise apparent – most no- tably a dinnertable argument be- tween the two leads that is raw and well-executed. A lively but mixed bag of formal interplay and some half-baked ideas, stewing in gorgeous cin- ematography and played by a cou- ple of game lead actors. IN CINEMAS TODAY Embassy Cinemas Valletta Tel. 21 227436, 21 245818 xXx3: The Return of Xander Cage (12A) 10:25, 13:45, 16:10, 18:35, 21:00 Why Him? (15) 13:40, 16:05, 18:30, 20:55 Ballerina (U) 10:20, 14:00 Collateral Beauty (12A) 16:05, 18:20, 20:40 Assassin's Creed (12A) 10:15, 13:30, 16:00, 18:25, 20:50 Silence (12) 10:20, 14:00, 17:30, 20:45 La La Land (12A) 10:00, 13:00, 15:45, 18:25, 21:10 Valletta Living History (U) 10:00, 10:45, 11:30, 12:15, 13:00, 13:45, 14:30, 15:15 Eden Cinemas St Julian's Tel. 23 710400 La La Land (12A) 13:15, 15:50, 18:25, 21:00, 23:45 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (12A) 13:15, 15:55, 18:35, 21:15 Live by Night (15) 13:30, 16:05, 18:40, 21:15, 23:50 xXx: Return of Xander Cage (TBA) 13:30, 16:05, 18:40, 21:15, 23:40 The Unknown Girl (TBA) 14:00, 18:50 Assassin's Creed (12A) 14:00, 16:20, 18:40, 21:10, 22:50, 23:35 A Monster Calls (12A) 14:00, 16:15, 18:35, 20:50 Silence (12) 14:00, 17:20, 20:30 Passengers (12A) 14:00, 16:25, 18:50, 21:15 Moana (PG) 14:00, 16:20, 18:40, 21:00 Why Him? (15) 14:00, 16:20, 18:40, 21:00, 23:25 Underworld: Blood Wars (15) 14:05, 16:20, 18:25, 20:30, 22:35 Ballerina (U) 14:20, 16:25, 18:25 One Piece Film Gold (TBA) 16:25, 21:15 Collateral Beauty (12A) 20:40 Empire Cinemas Bugibba Tel. 21 581787, 21 581909 Why Him? (15) 11:15, 13:35, 16:05, 18:30, 20:50 La La Land (12A) 10:30, 13:15, 15:55, 18:35, 21:15 Assassin's Creed (12A) 10:50, 13:35, 16:00, 18:30, 21:00 xXx: Return of Xander Cage (12A) 11:00, 13:35, 16:10, 18:30, 21:00 Manchester by the Sea (15) 10:30, 13:15, 15:55, 18:35, 21:15 Live by Night (15) 10:45, 15:55, 18:35, 21:15 Moana (PG) 13:30, 17:30 Silence (12) 10:45, 14:00, 20:45 ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ LIVING THE DREAM ★ ★ ★ ★ DREAM, DREAM, DREAM ★ ★ ★ WHAT DREAMS MAY COME ★ ★ STARK REALITY ★ NIGHTMARE FILM By Teodor Reljic LA LA LAND (12A) ★ ★ ★ Tapping the night away: Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are game leads in this award-courting musical drama from the director of Whiplash Pick the right dream Technicolour dreams: Gosling, Stone

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