5/13/23
Newsletter #335
The Crack of Dawn
I thought Whiplash (2014), written and directed by Damien Chazelle, was a really good movie, particularly for a first feature. Everything in the film worked: the script, the direction, the performances (J.K. Simmons, who played the teacher, and is from Detroit, won a well-deserved Oscar), and Miles Teller did an astounding job with the drumming – it’s really complicated, and I bought all of it. Although the film didn’t do very well at the box office, I thought, “Even those yo-yos in Hollywood have to see that this Chazelle kid is talented.” Well, they did, and I have no doubt that he was feted, wooed, and given the first-class Hollywood treatment by many producers, agents and managers. That’s when we all get to find out if the person is honestly talented, if they have any other interests beyond that first film, and foremost, can they hold onto whoever they specifically are and not be consumed by the Hollywood machine, its mythology, and its plethora of bad influences. How do you remain who you are — if indeed you are anybody — and not become one more asshole running around Hollywood trying to make a deal.
About a year after Whiplash came out, I read that Damien Chazelle had announced his new, expensive, studio movie, called, Larry in La La Land, and it was a musical. Oh, dear. A musical called Larry in La La Land? Alarm bells rang and red lights flashed. As a grizzled old Hollywood veteran I thought, “Wow, he didn’t last one movie.”
A year later La La Land (2015) came out (thank God they dropped the Larry in) and, being a musical, was far worse than I could have ever imagined. You see, in a musical you not only have to have good songs (which nobody knows how to write anymore), but you need extra talented performers, who can act, sing and dance, like, you know, Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire or Ginger Rogers or Judy Garland, none of whom were apparently available.
So, La La Land begins. The very first musical number is, appropriately, if obvious and uninspired in a weary sort of way, set in a traffic jam. Singing a bland song, young folks get out of their cars and perform this number that immediately put me in mind of ABC After School Specials, which I hadn’t thought of in over 40 years. That odd, anthology show started in 1973 when I was 15, and was the gold standard for Stupid. They tried everything: drama, musicals, animated, to not only be entertaining, but they were also supposed to be educational and inspiring. If you said something was like an ABC After School Special, you meant that it was shit, but in a particular way: that it thought it was important, but had somehow managed to congeal into something that was less than its talented parts (here’s an episode from the first season – Alexander, the story of a retired clown and his undying love for children, starring Red Buttons and 11-year-old Jodie Foster). And I kinda sorta remember it.
Anyway, back to the opening of La La Land. Cars are stuck in a traffic jam, people get out, sing a song I don’t give fuck about, then do some lame, breakdancing moves. And it’s shot like an ABC After School Special and feels like one, too. Once again, wow. It takes a certain skill to spend an enormous amount of money and make it look low budget. Damien Chazelle would go on to win the Oscar for Best Director, making him the youngest winner of that award at 32.
Mr. Chazelle has followed that film with the expensive bombs: First Man (2018) and Babylon (2022), both deadly dull in their conception and execution. I daresay, having nothing personally against Damien Chazelle, he’s a one-hit wonder. Whiplash was really good, though certainly not great, and I wish him all the luck in the world.
However, besides reminding me of an ABC After School Special, the first scene of La La Land also reminded me a lot of a scene that actually occurred in my life, and in reality, it was way better than the movie.
I don’t remember if this was 30 years ago, or 40 years ago, or maybe even 50 years ago, it doesn’t matter. I was stuck in a traffic jam directly in front of my old high school on a very hot day. Everybody had their car windows open. We sat there and sat there and sat there, baking. Then on the big Detroit rock and roll station, WRIF, they played Don McLean’s American Pie. I turned it up and started to sing along. In the car directly beside me going the other way, the woman began to sing along. As we inched along going either way, the person next to me kept changing, and they all had American Pie on and were heartily singing along. Everybody began to notice that everybody else was singing the same song, and people began to stick their heads out the window and sing. Since this wasn’t a musical, the traffic jam cleared, traffic began moving and the magical moment was over. But even at the time I thought, “That would make a great musical number. Everybody gets out of their car and starts to dance.”
Well, I like my memory of the traffic jam with American Pie a lot more than La La Land. However, I would not have remembered the scene with American Pie were it not for La La Land, so I thank it for that. And I wish Damein Chazelle all the luck in the world. Sure, you made two big bombs in a row, but you’re still the youngest Best Director Oscar-winner, and that’s not chopped liver.
I raise the shade and there’s them wacky blue gels. It’s dawn and it’s a new day.
Cheers!