Why some music critics aren't so jazzed about La La Land
La La Land has been nominated for 14 Academy Awards at this weekend's Oscars. That puts it in a tie for first place — along with Titanic and All About Eve — for the most nominations in history.
La La Land is a big, whimsical, nostalgia-driven Hollywood romance, but it's also a jazz musical. While the movie has generally been a darling of film critics, people from the world of jazz have been quick to point out its flaws.
Ben Ratliff is a contributing editor at Esquire who spent 20 years as The New York Times' jazz critic. As he tells Day 6 host Brent Bambury, for him, the film falls short.
"This is not a film with any social reality. And it is a fantasy, and it's not about jazz," Ratliff says. "As soon as you start talking about 'is it about jazz?', you're sort of being trolled, or you're entering a trap or something."
For Ratliff, one specific scene set off alarm bells in his head. In it, Ryan Gosling's character, Sebastian (or Seb), brings Emma Stone's character, Mia, to a jazz club. He tells her about his love for, what he calls, "pure" jazz.
"In real world jazz culture the idea of 'pure' just doesn't compute," Ratliff says. "That coin does not fit into that machine. Jazz down to the root is a hybrid thing. It's an afro-latin-euro thing, and it's very flexible. So the idea of 'pure' just doesn't work."
While Seb purports to love jazz, Ratliff sees that love as shallow and immature.
"Sebastian is tormented by jazz. His whole orientation toward it is isolated. It's controlling. It's highly emotional. It's basically a teenager's view of jazz."
Ratliff's criticisms of the film aren't limited to its portrayal of jazz. He also points to Seb's role as "the white saviour purist, pitted against the black sellout." It's a view shared by other critics. But it's the film's inclusion of jazz as a device that really disappoints him.
"It's just kind of sad to simplify jazz, because jazz is best understood as a 100-year continuity. So if you're going to make it ahistorical, or if you're going to understand it from a frustrated teenager's point of view, you're just missing all the good stuff."