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Trevor J. Pacelli | 14530 NE 44th St Bldg. L-8 | Bellevue WA 98007
425-736-0989 | [email protected]
TrevorsViewOnHollywood.com/
“Autism lessons in your favorite movies.”
La La Land— Here’s Looking at a Classic, Kid.
December 20, 2016
Damien Chazelle
Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling
La La Land
Black Label Media
12/9/2016
2 hr. 8 min.
PG-13
Musical/Romance
Theatrical Release
Ages 12-17
Target Gender Female
Genre Hollywood Musical
Quality Grade B
Review:
It’s shot in cinemascope, it’s big on pizzazz, it’s packed with bold color schemes, the stage lights appear
straight out of a dream, it’s big one minute and quiet the next, and every song and tune will replay in your
head days after it’s all over. No, you’re not in the 1950s, and no, you’re not in Kansas anymore. This is the
present-day reality. So forget about those loud action movies with no respect for the stage, La La Land
proves what can and should be done with the long lost art that is the moving picture.
The joyful musical genre has been in the Hollywood cemetery for too long now, but even rarer now is a
musical with entirely original music in an entirely original story, which director Damien Chazelle (Whiplash)
achieves with expert choreography. While he may give Southern California a bit too overly glamorous of a
view with no dark edge, he still recaptures the same zest of West Side Story while cranking the spectacle up
a notch. It’s always a challenge for any serious director to stage a film where everyone breaks out into song
without it oozing Disney Channel cheese, but Damien Chazelle has done it!
Within Chazelle’s cinematic recreation of Southern California, he fastens our seatbelts through the bumpy
relationship between two artists over the course of four long seasons, starting at the heat of Christmas. One
is a ruby-red aspiring actress who cannot land an audition, and thus must serve coffee under a careless
manager to make ends meet. The other is a Fred Astaire-Dooley Wilson mash-up whose fast fingers
command jazz on the piano, no matter what his boss wants him to play. After they first meet over road rage
at rush hour, these distracted minds find that destiny has forced them together with coincidental run-ins
day after day. Everything after that is as pure and classic as dancing under a full moon.
Once we learn about what these two have in common, boy is it the beginning of a beautiful friendship! He
wants to revive Jazz as a modern art form, but she cannot stand listening to it, and this subject alone stems
all the other conflicts that these two share over the course of a year. It is a pleasure to see the ups and
Trevor J. Pacelli | 14530 NE 44th St Bldg. L-8 | Bellevue WA 98007
425-736-0989 | [email protected]
TrevorsViewOnHollywood.com/
“Autism lessons in your favorite movies.”
downs of their romance, even if the other people in their lives are treated by the screenwriter as if they
don’t even matter.
Yet it’s not the supporting cast who helps us to understand their relationship, but the numbers that project
their thoughts onto the moment. On their first formal meeting, she hears his piano playing as lit by a single
spotlight, as if she’s glancing into his own little world. On second formal meeting, they tap dance in front
of a skyline at twilight. On the first date, they are swept off their feet—literally, to a dance against the stars
in a planetarium. On the tenth date, they sing an Oscar-worthy duet. As time goes by, the dream of making
it to the top of the world in Paris quickly diminishes. Her tears swell up along with the audiences’; I’ll even
admit I choked up as well, and I’m a man.
This wide variety of tone in music is plentiful yet wisely spare, celebrating the history of cinema magic while
wishing the best for its future. Yet also like the oldies it writes its love to, there are one too many white
players in the production. There are two African Americans cast, but as dancers on the pier who say not a
word, just as blacks were stereotyped in that golden age of Hollywood. If this production was less focused
on making a musical spectacular and more focused on showing care and attention to today’s media-
frenzied audience, then there would have been a better likelihood for this to surpass those repetitive comic
book movies at the box office.
I sincerely hope for the day when people return to their senses and offer their money to movies because of
their cinematic quality other than their branding. Considering how much music is now taking over our
culture, we could use that reminder of how much music raises our self-esteem when times are hard. After
seeing what La La Land can do with both old and new styles of filmmaking, I can absolutely assess that I
love musicals all over again! Therefore, I encourage everyone to go see this magical delight to raise the
spirits for 2017. After all, tomorrow is another day!
Autism Lesson:
Everybody has a dream of some sort. La La Land tells us about two star-crossed lovers whose contradicting
dreams challenged their love for one another. It makes you wonder, what’s most important? Your loved
ones or your dreams?
While some people may abandon family time to get that promotion they always wanted, others would miss
out on their brother’s birthday party to keep practicing soccer for that future title as “world’s greatest soccer
player.” It’s different for everybody, but we all have one specific thing that we want to accomplish before
we die. Well let me tell you, autism is no exception for having dreams to push toward.
In fact, dreams for those on the spectrum can be more vividly realized, right down to what will happen in
the future and when. They can even have these dreams from when they were very little.
Six-Word Lessons for Dads with Autistic Kids, Lesson #49: What Were Your Strongest School
Subjects?
My dreams have changed over time as I got older, as I progressed onto newer interests. I had a dream of
creating my own generation of my own Pokémon and getting it made into a real game. I had a dream of
joining Pixar, neither of which became reality, as you could probably tell. Right now, my dream is something
I never had when I was a kid: where I run my own corporation of fellow critics who help me in analyzing
movies based on the criteria I set here. It would turn into my own version of the Oscars, where I make sure
every film of the year gets watched by at least one representative under my wing, and at the end of the
Trevor J. Pacelli | 14530 NE 44th St Bldg. L-8 | Bellevue WA 98007
425-736-0989 | [email protected]
TrevorsViewOnHollywood.com/
“Autism lessons in your favorite movies.”
year, set our own decision on the Best Picture of the year. This would be a more organized, better focused
approach to criticism from other critics circle awards that’s intent on awarding art that helps our humanity.
Yes, I know, it’s a big dream to have, and it would take a lot of work to get there, but I’m up to the challenge.
Then there are others on the autism spectrum who may have their plans for the future set up for years. I
once met a high school sophomore with autism who was already working on a script for his senior project
in animation. Wow! But alas, like anybody else following dreams, life gets in the way. A car wreck could
cause loss of mobility in limbs, your mode of speech could one day be gone, you could get arrested
(hopefully for a crime you did not commit), or you could simply lose interest in your one dream.
One thing that you may be wondering is, “if dreams rarely ever get met, why bother having them at all?”
Six-Word Lessons on Female Asperger Syndrome, Lesson #84: If at First You Don’t Succeed…
Dreams are not always a bad thing to have. There are both benefits and drawbacks to them. If somebody
had autism and set up a specific dream and how they would accomplish it, then that proves that they are
serious about what to do with their future and will take serious action. They have to be careful though not
to get so locked on that one potential future that they cancel out other possible outcomes. They need to
understand that they don’t know what the future holds, so they have to consider everything that could go
wrong in achievement of that dream.
Without spoiling anything, La La Land discusses that same struggle, when you want to do one thing, and
that is the one thing in life you want to do, but the outcome means your dream may never be met. It doesn’t
mean don’t dream. It just means to be realistic about your dreams. If you want to win at American Idol
someday, don’t say it’s impossible. But it turns out you instead have to leave your audition to comfort your
sick sister at the hospital, remember where the priority should be. We’re all capable of doing great, but keep
in mind that the way we become great rarely turns out in the way we expect.
3 Takeaways:
1. For anybody with autism, don’t get so hooked onto your dreams that you consider no other
possibilities. Life always has a way of changing at you, so considering other alternatives to your
dreams will foster joy to you and your loved ones.
2. Keep your dreams realistic and true to yourself. I would not advise hopes to becoming an expert
pianist just because your mom had hopes in you doing so. If you’re reportedly bad at something
and/or hate doing it, don’t pursue it! Self-awareness is especially hard for somebody on the autism
spectrum, so don’t rely on your own judgment as to what kind of dreams you should pursue.
3. Always know that your family and friends have priority over your own hopes for the future. La La
Land doesn’t align with this message very well, so I’m telling you now that it’s better for you to
never get your own TV show but share good times with loved ones than to be rich but all alone.
This is also difficult for those with autism to understand.
Thanks so much for your time in reading! My book Six-Word Lessons on Growing Up Autistic is available
on Amazon, Kindle, and iBooks. Be sure to subscribe to my site for more updates on reviews like this.
If there is a specific movie you’d like to see reviewed, please email me at
[email protected] for your recommendations.
Have a great weekend, and happy watching!
Trevor J. Pacelli | 14530 NE 44th St Bldg. L-8 | Bellevue WA 98007
425-736-0989 | [email protected]
TrevorsViewOnHollywood.com/
“Autism lessons in your favorite movies.”
Sources:
Glieberman, Owen. Film Review: ‘La La Land’. Digital image. Variety. WordPress, 31 Aug
2016. Web. <http://variety.com/2016/film/reviews/la-la-land-review-venice-ryan-
gosling-emma-stone-1201846576/>.
La La Land. Lionsgate. Web. <http://www.lalaland.movie/>.
