Since it was made by the same director as the gloriously ambivalent Whiplash, isn’t it possible that La La Land was actually intended as a spoof? It could be taken to satirise a world in which anybody can presume to succeed at anything, whether song and dance routines (exemplified by TV virtual reality shows like The Voice or Strictly), or becoming US president, without any particular expertise. It seems to mock the pretensions of second-rate musicals, or the sentimentally stereotypical view of jazz. All this is achieved with astonishing virtuosity and good humour, which increases the ambiguity still further. So it richly deserves all the awards it has received – if possibly for the wrong reasons. It’s interesting how people have responded: post-truth and post-fact, are we now also living in the era of post-satire?
Tony Haynes
Grand Union Orchestra, London
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