La La Land

Fame, Artistic Integrity, Romance, pick two... if you're lucky.

La La Land is a new musical set in a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles where anyone who can't sing and dance disappears -- sort of like The Omega Man only with toe tapping music. Occasionally we catch a brief glimpse of a non-singer/dancer but they always vanish after a few seconds of screen time.

Everything about the film is likable. It has likable actors, likable music, and likable characters who sing likable songs while doing likable dance numbers. In it, a likable guy and girl -- he an aspiring musician and she a would-be actress -- struggle with the three-way balancing act of fame, artistic integrity, and a stable personal life. Entertainers, the film shows us, must endure these centrifugal pulls because they have great, sensitive souls.

I expect it to do well with the Academy and other award-voting organizations. Most of the voting members of the Academy will have some sort of struggle or disappointment for which the film's message provides a convenient excuse: Stalled career? That just shows dedication to ones art and one's family. Type cast in crap roles? Shows hard work paying off and a desire to please ones fans. Marriage crumbling? The cost of a career in art. Its all part of the price that creative types pay for being cleverer, wiser, and more sensitive than the soulless rest of society.