"La La Land" Review

You often hear people criticize films by saying "They don't make 'em like they used to." Well, I think Damien Chazelle (Whiplash) just filled that void.

La La Land is a musical-comedy-romance-drama about coming to terms with your dreams. It shares DNA with many of the classic Hollywood musicals, specifically Singin' In the Rain and Meet Me In St. Louis. Anyone who has ever been in love, aspired to something great, or felt the pain of defeat should experience a deep connection to this film.

Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone play aspiring artists; he, a jazz musician named Sebastian who dreams of opening his own club and she, an actress named Mia who dreams of hitting it big. They are drawn to each other by their passion for their respective endeavors. As success begins to mount for them both, ensuing circumstances threaten to tear Seb and Mia apart.

One of the best things about La La Land is that it has its feet planted firmly in nostalgia while also delivering something that feels fresh. By its very nature, La La Land isn't as white-knuckle engaging as Chazelle's prior effort, Whiplash. I think Whiplash is the superior film, but that doesn't mean that La La Land isn't something special. From the opening musical number - "Another Day of Sun," in which commuting Angelinos relieve their road rage by dancing and singing all over a gridlocked freeway - you can tell this movie is going to be something special. The story doesn't boil down to an easy, familiar resolution either. I won't spoil anything, but if you come out of this movie feeling depressed, you need to go back to the box office, buy a ticket to the very next show, and watch the whole thing again. You missed the point.

Stone and Gosling deliver performances that all but secure Oscar nominations, if not wins. They're no Astaire and Rogers; "A Lovely Night" feels like two average people took one dance class and decided to go shoot a big tap-dance number. Having said that, Gosling and Stone's chemistry is as close as Hollywood currently has to those classic duos of yesteryear.

The production design by David Wasco is also quite wonderful. With so many iPhones and Toyota Priuses used by characters throughout the production, (there's a great gag at the valet kiosk when Seb and Mia leave a party in the Hollywood Hills) it's clear that the story takes place in the present day. However the sets and costumes maintain that vintage "Hollywood" feel at the heart of Chazelle's story.

Lastly, I have to mention the incredible original soundtrack by Justin Hurwitz. The marquee tracks "City of Stars" and "Audition" are likely to go neck-and-neck for all the Best Original Song awards this year. "Another Day of Sun" and "Someone In the Crowd" are peppy, toe-tapping ensemble numbers while "A Lovely Night" is reminiscent of classic Broadway duets. "My Time of Day" from Guys & Dolls immediately comes to mind.

You'll have done yourself a disservice if you miss out on La La Land this year. I'm not certain that it's the best film of 2016, but it's up there and is all but assured multiple Oscar wins - including Best Picture.

A

"Sing Street" Review

Irish writer/director John Carney (Once) follows up his 2012 feature Begin Again with yet another rip-roaring, soul-soaring, heartwarming love story. This is Sing Street.

Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) is a 15-year-old boy living in mid-'80s Dublin. His parents (Aidan Gillen, Maria Doyle Kennedy) are often too absorbed in money and fidelity issues to give Conor, his older brother Brendan (Jack Reynor) and sister Ann (Kelly Thornton) the love they deserve. Facing tough economic times, the parents decide to move Conor to the real-life Synge Street school run by the Congregation of Christian Brothers. There he faces down bullies and a fascist headmaster who forces him to go barefoot because he doesn't own dress code shoes. One day after a confrontation with a bully, Conor meets Darren (Ben Carolan), an ally and aspiring businessman. As the two walk off school grounds at the end of the day, Conor spots a beautiful girl named Raphina (Lucy Boynton) on the stoop across the street. He tries to impress her by saying that he needs a model for his band's latest music video and that she would be perfect. With few resources and even fewer friends, Conor decides he needs to make the gig legit by actually starting a band good enough to record an original song by the weekend.

The rest, as they say, is rock-n-roll history.

The film gets its name from that of the band Conor forms; the boys all attend Synge Street School, so "Sing Street" feels like a natural re-appropriation for such a group.

As he's proved with his previous films, Carney knows how to craft an engaging love story. This one feels decidedly fresh for a couple of reasons. The first is that it never seems like Raphina is an unobtainable object, like a princess locked in a faraway tower. She's practically another member of the band. The second is because their story never feels schmaltzy, and even when it dabbles in that territory, it does so with its tongue firmly planted in its cheek as exemplified by perhaps the coolest scene of the film. One day while playing in an empty gymnasium, Conor imagines a music video for one of the band's songs "Drive It Like You Stole It" which takes place during a 1950s high school prom like the one in Back To the Future. The idea is for Raphina to walk into the prom, have the crowd part, and the two of them run off into the moonlight together.

This is of course what Conor really wants in real life - for the two of them to run off and be together. It isn't necessarily a fantasy for him, which is why it's such a stellar, heartbreaking artistic expression on Carney's part to bookend that colorful scene with the band in the cold, grey gym after school with just a handful of offbeat backup performers. In truth, it's actually an incredible self-contained music video that Carney masterfully weaves into the fabric of the story.

It should go without saying then that Carney's script and direction are first-rate, and his original songs live up to that as well. "The Riddle of the Model" is a solid tribute to New Wave acts like Duran Duran and Depeche Mode, while "Drive It Like You Stole It" could be one of the top songs of the summer if it got radio play in the U.S.

Acting performances across the board are wonderful, with Reynor standing out as Conor's brother Brendan. He brings a crucial sense of "been-there, failed-at-that, but-that-doesn't-mean-you-have-to" gravitas to the character which reigns in, but also facilitates, the controlled chaos that Conor, Raphina and Sing Street represent. You'll leave wishing this guy was your big brother.

Truly everything about Sing Street (from the catchy songs to the terrific acting, to Carney's smart, funny script and assured direction) works in conjunction with everything else, and nothing feels half-assed. Sing Street is the perfect feel-good film to kickstart the summer season. This is one of the most complete and all-around solid films I've seen in some time. It certainly earns a spot near the top of my "Best of 2016" list so far. '

A+

"The Jungle Book" Review

Director Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Chef) delivers a mind-blowing adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book for Walt Disney Pictures. Favreau works from a script by Justin Marks (Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li).

Disney's newest live-action iteration finds impeccable balance in maintaining the crowd-friendly lightheartedness of the 1967 cartoon and the darker, more frightening edge of Kipling's original stories. This is an adventure picture that everyone in the family will get something out of no matter what. It's just that much fun.

Favreau's The Jungle Book picks up with the "man-cub" Mowgli (Neel Sethi) well-established as a member of the wolf pack overseen by Akela (voiced by Giancarlo Esposito) and Raksha (voiced by Lupita Nyong'o). On the day of the "water truce," in which all animals from the jungle are welcome to drink from the same watering hole, Mowgli receives an unwelcome threat from the tiger Shere Khan (voiced by Idris Elba) - "leave the jungle forever or perish." When Mowgli flees, Shere Khan decides to go back on his deal and hunt the man-cub down anyway. As he treks across the jungle, Mowgli undergoes a journey of self-discovery where he meets a slew of characters - some good, like the bear Baloo (voiced by Bill Murray), and some bad, such as Kaa the python (voiced by Scarlett Johansson) and King Louie the orangutan (voiced by Christopher Walken).

The artificial world that Favreau and everyone from the production designer to the art directors to the VFX wizards create together is the most immersive and lifelike since Life of Pi, maybe even Avatar. As wondrous as Pi's vast ocean and the planet of Pandora were, Favreau's jungle gets the edge because it feels the most plausible. Talking animals are most certainly the stuff of fantasy storytelling, but this jungle feels like a real location, and the animals themselves maintain a photorealistic appearance even while speaking. Nothing about this jungle's textures and foliage is stylized or "Seussified." Everything is modeled after real, tangible plant and animal life.

In two separate scenes, the camera follows Mowgli at the bottom of a landslide and later across a sloshing river with Baloo. In respective instances, mud and water speckle the lens as if filming on location, even though the end credits clearly state "Filmed entirely in Downtown Los Angeles."

Everyone loves to pooh-pooh the use of CGI in Hollywood's biggest blockbusters, but when it's used almost as a character in and of itself to supplement the larger story, and it's completed with such an eye for lifelike immersion, the artists and storytellers deserve nothing but praise. Save maybe Rogue One, The Jungle Book should have little to no competition on its way to the next Best Visual Effects Oscar.

The voice acting is mostly magnificent, with Murray, Elba, and Ben Kingsley as the panther Bagheera standing out. Elba's work, combined with the fine digital rendering of the tiger himself, make this Shere Khan one of Disney's nastiest all-time villains. He may even crack some "Best Movie Villains Ever" lists. Though Shere Khan certainly asserts dominance over Cruella de Ville and Ursula, time will tell how he stacks up against the likes of Darth Vader, Hans Gruber and Ledger's Joker. For me, it's pretty close.

Probably the most pleasant surprise out of all the recognizable voices was that of the late Garry Shandling who has a bit role as Ikki the porcupine. It's a riot to listen to Shandling spout lines one last time as he scuttles around claiming sticks and rocks for his home like an anal-retentive fusspot. Credit Favreau for affording the film the kind of breathing room that allows small moments like Ikki's to shine while maintaining the story's larger focus.

Not all the performances are A-grade however. Newcomer Sethi is as decent a choice as any to play a live-action Mowgli inspired by the cartoon. But some of his dialogue delivery feels corny, as if he's not really feeling it and is just saying lines because someone told him to. I also didn't care for Walken as Don Corleo - I mean - King Louie. As the monarch of the monkeys, Walken does his best Brando impression and then tries to sing Louie Prima. It's awful, and with Richard Sherman's retooled lyrics, this was easily the most grating sequence in an otherwise swingin' production.

It's just barely saved by a sly wink to Walken's classic "More Cowbell" skit from Saturday Night Live.

Thankfully these flaws never outweigh the film's senses of fun, humor and danger. The Jungle Book is an adventure well-worth taking with the entire family. The astonishing visuals pop even more in 3-D, and several sequences beg to be experienced in IMAX. If IMAX 3-D is an option in your area, don't think twice.

A-