Tag Archives: Damien Chazelle

LA LA LAND
A loving homage to Old Hollywood musicals, Damien Chazelle’s La La Land is like a crisp sip of Champagne, a charming throwback that’s neither revolutionary nor fully developed. But I still enjoyed it. It’s a contemporary twist on an old-fashioned: the two main characters carry out a screen romance pieced together from countless classic films. Chazelle has […]

Oscars Week: BIRDMAN + WHIPLASH
Masculinity dominates this year’s Best Picture race. From the pool of eight nominees, there are historical leaders of speech and thought, from Martin Luther King, Jr. to Stephen Hawking. War heroes of different shades in Chris Kyle and Alan Turing. Richard Linklater’s vision of a boy entering adulthood. Then we have the artist: the self-absorbed, self-punishing […]