Double Feature: La La Land (2016) & In My Dreams (2014)

Welcome to the next double feature! Its also the second (and probably last) Valentine’s romance film double feature. This time, we’re looking at romantic musical drama La La Land and then, pairing with it romantic drama In My Dreams. Let’s it check!

La La Land (2016)

Director (and writer): Damien Chazelle

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Finn Wittrock, John Legend, Callie Hernandez, Jessica Rothe, Sonoya Mizuno, J.K. Simmons

While navigating their careers in Los Angeles, a pianist and an actress fall in love while attempting to reconcile their aspirations for the future. – IMDB

Its taken a few years to catch up with La La Land and with Oscar-nominated films, I always hesitate to believe all the hype, especially when it comes to musical and romantic drama type of films. La La Land is a fun little movie. Its not completely about romance but its definitely present throughout as these two find being with each other to find the courage to be themselves and pursue their own dreams. At the same time, its fun because it has a lot of the right elements lined up, whether its Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling being cast as the two main leads and deliver some charismatic performances, a lot of great choreography for their dance numbers and a beautiful soundtrack as well as how the whole film has some wonderful cinematography. It all adds to the whole viewing experience.

If I had to be a little picky, because I do watch a lot of these types of things, albeit lower budget and not with all the other elements, the story of inspiration and romance and succeeding in your dream and the whole journey sort of story line is always rather similar and the same applies to La La Land. The script is absolutely not the standout point here. What helps a familiar script, because I think being familiar isn’t always a problem, is that the other elements done well above, makes the script find its unique elements. Perhaps the best thing about the script is the beautiful bittersweet ending add-in that actually rounds up the film so well.

In My Dreams (2014)

Director: Kenny Leon

Cast: Katharine McPhee, Mike Vogel, JoBeth Williams, Joe Massingill, Rachel Skarsten, Antonio Cupo, Jessalyn Wanlim

Natalie and Nick are frustrated with their luck in romance. After tossing coins into a fountain, the two then begin dreaming about each other. But, according to fountain mythology, they only have a week to turn those dreams into reality. – IMDB

I think the best way to describe In My Dreams is that it has its heart in the right place. The story itself is not a bad one at all. We have movies like In Your Eyes which is about two people seeing through each other’s eyes (review) and then we have movies like The Lake House which is two people at different times, just as examples. In My Dreams success would lie heavily on the mechanics of how these two manage to meet in their dreams and then afterwards, how they end up realizing that they are actual people and not figments of their imagination and end up connecting in real life. For this point, it works and then it doesn’t.

In My Dreams is a TV movie so right away, the quality is probably more along the Hallmark movies kind of deal. And it does have that feel-good and inevitable happy ending. Its an okay movie in terms of those little elements of character building and making Nick and Natalie, played by Mike Vogel and Katharine McPhee respectively, rather decent characters. They don’t have a huge amount of depths, just like they only had a few conversations about not a lot that makes them feel like they would work with each other. However, they do have some fun supporting characters that make for some nice moments as these two characters work towards their own dreams.

Where this falls apart is in letting Nick and Natalie have this frustratingly slow way of connecting the dots of their little details in the conversations in their dreams to the events of themselves in reality as they had those missing each other moments (which is also rather expected in romance films). Those little cues that weren’t connected actually felt like it was ignored deliberately, making the script slightly inconsistent with these two characters who aren’t dumb especially as their conversations together is about deeper feelings and such.

In My Dreams is probably one that is okay for a rainy day but there are some plot holes and then its still a rather predictable movie.

That’s it for this double feature!
Have you seen either of these movies?

The Big Short (2015)

After a little mix-up with a free advanced screening that I got picked for, it cleared up and they ended up giving me The Big Short.  I’m not much of a finance person.  Fun fact is that, I actually started out studying in a major in finance when I first started university and then decided it wasn’t my thing and switched majors.  So I know a little more than the basics but its really not part of my interest although my husband is a huge fan and have read the book of the same name by Michael Lewis.  While he couldn’t go with me, my best friend did. Honestly, the cast looks great but I’m not much of a drama movie sort of person so I wasn’t sure what to expect.

Let’s check it out! 🙂

The Big Short (2015)

Director: Adam McKay

Cast: Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, Steve Carell, Brad Pitt, Marisa Tomei, John Magaro, Finn Wittrock, Jeremy Strong

Four outsiders in the world of high-finance who predicted the credit and housing bubble collapse of the mid-2000s decide to take on the big banks for their lack of foresight and greed. –IMDB

Drama movies and especially those based about finance is really not my cup of tea but I really liked The Big Short a lot. I might be the only person on the universe that has only seen snippets of Anchorman and never the entire movie so I don’t know anything about Adam McKay’s style however if this is an indication of anything, its that he manages to turn this true story into something where we can take away about the economy and government and social structure, even morals and make it also entertaining but with a good creative approach to make sure all the not so finance saavy audience will understand those fancy finance lingo and terms in layman terms. Now, that is a feat all in itself and I think he does a stellar job at it. The script is strong enough that I actually thought about digging out the copy of The Big Short that my husband owns and reading it. The main reason is because the movie also has quirky narration from various characters’ viewpoints as the story goes along and when its made for cinematic convenience, they add the narration to say how it actually went down. I thought that was a pretty unique approach.

Most of us know that scripts and directors are a part of the success of a movie. The Big Short is full of great actors.  Our main narrator is Ryan Gosling who seems to take a backseat in the situation but we soon realize is implicated into this situation as well. While, we’re also quickly introduced to the extremely smart but socially awkward Dr. Michael J. Burry played by Christian Bale.  I personally love Bale, more his earlier work that the more recent stuff.  But he did the role so well.  I think the compliment goes out to him and Brad Pitt (who I actually didn’t recognize until fairly later in the movie) who really changes the appearance and style of what we’re used to seeing them in (or its my lack of seeing movies from them in this genre) that made me not see them as the popular stars that we know them as.   But it would be unfair to leave out Steve Carell in this mix.  I never saw Foxcatcher so maybe that is his best role ever (which I’ve heard being said), but this is my favorite role of his as Mark Baum. There are no words to describe the truth these characters carry in a blunt and awkwardly social way, especially in the case of Bale and Carell’s characters.  They have gone through struggle and they manage to make especially those two characters very human but never enough to get in the way of the message this story is trying to send, whether its about the financial sectors or the morals of finally understanding what their predictions could mean in the bigger picture, especially when they are betting on the future of the economy.

In a movie like this, there are some supporting actors that I’d really like to see more of.  Some of them are familiar faces and some not so much (maybe to others who have seen their recent movies).  Just a quick mention of John Magaro and Finn Wittrock who buddy up in this one and give us an additional perspective as young investors who want to play with the big boys and fall on this betting against the market completely by chance but is lead by a reclusive ex-finance mentor (played by Brad Pitt). At the same time, Vinnie (played by Jeremy Strong) is part of the team with Steve Carell’s character Mark Baum and I liked his role a lot too.

I’m saying a lot of good stuff about The Big Short.  I truly enjoyed it immensely.  However, if I was to criticize it just one little bit although in the great spectrum of things, it didn’t bother all that much. Its the ending drags a little and the drama is totally there.  Up to that abrupt turning point, they managed to show us the gravity of the situation but also keep us entertained but when the deed actually happens, the tone shifts with the snap of our fingers.  The morals and ethics of the situation just slaps us in the face even for these guys who are the winners of this situation but then it begs the question, are they really the winners, right? And at what expense?  Although, in that defense, I could argue why it needs to have that tone which is why I’m okay with it.

Overall, The Big Short is a great drama who uses a unique approach to create a dramatized effect but also give us the story and the message its sending to clearly show us what happened during this credit crisis in 2008.  Its a story about greed but also about morals.   Its entertaining and thought provoking all at the same time. Definitely the surprise of 2015 for me!

Have you seen The Big Short? Do you intend to?

Valentine’s Marathon: The Notebook (2004)

Its been almost 10 years that this has been out and exactly that same amount of time that I’ve seen it.  The Notebook is one of those adaptations which was great when I saw it but over the years, something has stopped me every time I want to do a repeat viewing.  Finally, because of this marathon, I picked up the dread this weekend and checked it out again.  Lets see how it was, shall we?

Director: Nick Cassavetes

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, Gena Rowlands, James Garner, Kevin Connolly, James Marsden

Duke is telling another senior woman the story of young love many years ago.  Its the story of a young man who knew exactly what he wanted called Noah (Ryan Gosling) who saw the girl he was attracted to called Allie (Rachel McAdams) who had just gone there for the summer.  Soon after, they became lovestruck but as the summer drawn to a close, Allie’s parents pointed out their social differences and they had to separate from each other.  After Noah went to war, he learned that Allie was already engaged to Lon Hammond (James Marsden) while he was still hoping to win her back with preserving what they had memories of.

I have no idea how to write a synopsis for this story.  Either way, Nicholas Sparks story all have this little funky twist ending of sorts and this one has a sad but beautiful one.  I remember seeing this in the theatres with two of my friends.  I had, of course, already read the book so I knew where this was going but at the same time, it had been a while and I remember having foggy details.  Who am I kidding, right? We chose this movie solely because it was the only one that matched the time when we went, you know, a spontaneous movie hang out with friends.  Whatever the reason, the theatre was packed with people older than us in our late teens and we pretty much had a feeling that we wouldn’t like it.  Turns out, as silly and corny as some of the sequences are, they had sweet moments and at the very end, I shed some tears.

I still can’t pinpoint why I didn’t want to see this movie again maybe its because the last 30 minutes touched me more than the first part did and honestly, this time around, I was cooking for the most of the beginning sequence and just listening and glimpsing at the screen.  My boyfriend downright sat down for a few minutes and then just walked away to play computer games instead and then when I told him which were the good parts, he’d come back down to watch it. The movie irritated him for the most part I think except for the ending.  I think he thought that was alright.  So far it doesn’t really seem like a review, right?

Its really because I don’t know how to say how I feel.  Its really mixed in my mind.  For one, the ending blows this thing way into awesome territory but then to get to the end, I do need to watch the beginning and as much as I love watching a very shaggy rugged Ryan Gosling, love struck and handsome, who I realized has evolved so much over the last ten years as well, the movie does hit a bit of meh for me.  However, taking into the parallel with Duke telling the story and you all know the actual ending of it, it really does tug on those heartstrings.  That part was just out of the world touching.

What was really cool was that, I never realized that James Marsden was in it until this time watching it and hey, I love that guy.  Its a really good actor, so it was a nice little bonus find that boosted this movie a little too 🙂

Before I start running in circles, The Notebook shows a great, long-lasting romance.  One that believes in miracles and that pulls each other together regardless of the consequences.  If you enjoy an epic romance tied with some sappy and some heartwarming and some cute scenes, this is a good one.  Make it through the whole thing and I promise the ending is one of the best I’ve seen.   However, I’d tell you to go ahead and read the novel because it does a better job.

Have you seen The Notebook? Have you read the book?