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Oscars 2017: Five reasons the strange backlash against La La Land is just plain wrong

Garry Maddox

I was walking the dog in the park when the favourite to win best picture at the Oscars next week came up for discussion.

"Saw that La La Land the other night," said a neighbour, who seems like a smart, thoughtful guy. "Absolute #@*$," he said. "Boring as all get-out." He and his wife went home to watch Singin' In The Rain afterwards so they could enjoy "a real musical".

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When you write about movies for a living, conversations like that are part of the job. Some people want your opinion; others want to give you theirs – and it often sparks an entertaining discussion.

What's been surprising over the past month is how many people seem to loathe La La Land. They're not just questioning whether it's the dazzling burst of cinematic sunshine that many critics have claimed. They're not just raising doubts about whether it should be favourite to win a shelf full of Oscars including best picture and director.

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No, for all those who love La La Land, there are others who really dislike it. I've heard it called dull. Over-rated. A fake musical.

I've heard that Ryan Gosling, who plays jazz pianist Sebastian, and Emma Stone, who is actress Mia, can't dance. They're not real singers either. And all those critics gushing over La La Land are kidding themselves.

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The backlash against La La Land is baffling.

If you go to one of the websites that aggregate reviews – Rotten Tomatoes, for example – you can see that La La Land gets an impressive 93 per cent "fresh" rating but there are still sceptics. "The cinematography and special effects are fantastic but don't actually compensate for a weak storyline and forgettable musical numbers," writes one reviewer. "A one-note bore," writes another. A third goes with: "It's too long, the music isn't great and I can't stand all the brightly coloured twirling skirts."

Having watched La La Land again this week to see whether it's really that flawed, I'd like to set some things straight ahead of the Oscars. Here are five reasons it deserves to clean up.

* On one level, it's a witty, warm and touching story about two likable idealists struggling against cold reality. Faced with repeated disappointment, failure and humiliation, they waver but keep pursuing their dreams. On a deeper level, the movie is about the need to keep fighting for what you passionately believe in. That's a theme for all of us. 

* It's a beautiful tribute to Hollywood movies and their spiritual home in Los Angeles but it also wittily plays off the industry's artificiality, cynicism and vanity.

* If you want to see how well music can be woven into the storytelling and deepen the emotion, watch La La Land. Two pieces – the melancholy theme that Gosling plays on the piano and the song City of Stars – are established early then keep coming back in different guises.

* It doesn't matter that Gosling and Stone can't dance like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers or sing like Hugh Jackman and Julie Andrews. They are terrific actors whose performances are funny, human and moving. Give me actors over great hoofers who can't act any day.

* Walking out from the screening with a smile for the second time, I remembered why movies matter. We need warm optimistic films like La La Land that remind us that, no matter how bleak things seem, we can get through hard times and triumph. To steal a line from a friend, if you don't like La La Land, you must have been dropped on your heart as a child.

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