Further thoughts on La La Land, from Richard Morrison in the Times (£). He wasn't impressed:
What’s most disturbing....is how the critics have accepted, almost without a murmur, the underlying racism in the film. I mean casting a white actor, Gosling, as the pianist who — alone, it seems — can save jazz, the quintessential black art form, from disappearing or being diluted by populists. Yes, there are great black musicians in the movie, but in the crucial scene where Gosling introduces Stone to his favourite jazz club he obliterates their performance by blathering a monologue over the top of it. After all the criticism two years ago about the glaring absence of Oscar nominations for minority-ethnic actors, you might have thought that Hollywood would have learnt a few lessons about diversity.
And after all that, Gosling’s character doesn’t play jazz. His “theme tune” — to which an entire jazz club listens in reverential silence — is more like Richard Clayderman on a bad night. Oh, all right, Richard Clayderman on a good night — but still not worth the price of your ticket, let alone a shelf of Oscars.
See my thoughts on the Gosling character as "white jazz saviour" here.
Comments