Reel Talk: Loathing La La Land

As someone who follows movies with a furious passion it's always interesting to see a new wave of audiences discover a movie after it's home video release.. Sometimes it's a Netflix release. Sometimes it's a Redbox rental. Regardless, the end result is the same. A brand new audience watches a movie for the first time and the reactions follow. However, last week's release of La La Land brought on such a second wave of backlash to the critical darling, I thought it would be a perfect reason to address why so many critics liked it in the first place and why it's more than ok to disagree.

The Critics: Something Different or Nostalgic Please

There's a number of reasons that critics and audiences view movies differently. First and foremost, critics watch a ton of movies. Most people watch a movie of their choice when they're in the mood, They don't have to watch a bad movie, and if they do it's usually by choice or due to personal interest. Critics watch piles of movies everyday. This has a couple of noteworthy effects, that I've experienced myself.

1. Cliches become more obvious.
2. Bad films because more of a chore because they're work, especially if they're functional bad films.
3. Anything different stands out.
4. You see movies without expectations

Imagine going through summer blockbusters and a bunch of weary fall dramas and here comes a bright old timey musical with two charming actors as the leads and great production values. It's a palette cleanser of the best kind, and as such, will get tons of praise heaped upon it with little reflection on its flaws.

The other thing about film critics is that they either run older or have an extensive film background, meaning that their appreciation for old film and music styles is rather high. That's not to say every critic loves fifties era musicals, but it does mean that many of them will be more accepting of A Star is Born styled storyline with fifties era music to match.

Finally, the critics also come in with the smallest amounts of knowledge and expectations about original movies. Fresh eyes are one of the most underrated elements of film criticism and they're nearly impossible to require. It's why action movie fans fell in love with John Wick. They knew almost nothing about what to expect and got the best R-rated action movie in about a decade. Were their minds as blown the second time around? No, but imagine you were told a flawed movie was one of the year's best...

The Audience: Expectations Have Been Set and the Flaws Are Obvious

For most audiences, watching a movie without expectations is nearly impossible. Either you wanted to see a movie based on a trailer, heard about it from an enthusiastic friend, or saw the positive reviews from critics. This goes double for movies that were busy during awards season as La La Land was. An Oscar-winning or even nominated movie has expectations that are difficult to match.

This works against the audience for a movie like La La Land. First and foremost it can make you angry if you don't like it, because why on earth did I spent my time watching this movie I hate and why did people recommend this to me? Also, critics and audiences may like or dislike movies for entirely different reasons. Did you come to this musical for inspiration? Well sorry La La Land is predominantly about adjusted expectations and what could've been. Do you like newer musicals with music more akin to current pop music? Swing and a miss again for La La Land. It's a disconnect between critics and audiences.

By that same token, high praise, also makes a movie's flaws more obvious and frustrating. Small plot holes become impossible to ignore, character's decisions are infuriating, and if you don't like the songs in a musical....well forget it. Movies have a small period of time to grab you and if they don't connect, you can spend the rest of the movie throwing your own frustrated gas on the fire.

Even liking musicals isn't a guarantee of enjoyment. I saw plenty of people tearing this movie to shreds for lackluster singing voices and slightly off dancing, so this movie had slim chances of pleasing people.

The Lesson: It's All Personal

As I've always said and will continue to say, there's no right way to feel about a movie like La La Land. I personally enjoyed aspects of it but didn't find it terribly fulfilling, though I'll admit my heightened expectations were a factor. Unless the movie is morally indefensible, you're free to like or dislike whatever movie you like. Heck some people will dislike La La Land simply because it's a musical. And that's fine. Everyone's tastes are different and different movies will grab their attention for different reasons.

Love it or loathe it, however you feel about La La Land is understandable, not right or wrong.