Crisp Criticism - "La La Land", "The Fits", "Things to Come", "Office Christmas Party"

by

Julien Faddoul

La La Land ***

A jazz pianist falls for an aspiring actress in Los Angeles.

Charming, infectious musical romance for the digital age that owes more than a whisper to Jacques Demy. It has a little more up its sleeve than one might expect, developing into a composed acknowledgement on the everyday trivialities that affect one’s aspirations. Those frustrated by its lack of new aesthetic ideas should be persuaded by its fierce commitment to bygone ones.

wd – Damien Chazelle

ph – Linus Sandgren

pd – David Wasco

m – Justin Hurwitz

ly – Benj Pasek, Justin Paul

ed – Tom Cross

cos – Mary Zophres

p – Fred Berger, Gary Gilbert, Jordan Horowitz, Marc Platt

Cast: Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, JK Simmons, Finn Wittrock, John Legend, Rosemarie DeWitt, Tom Everett Scott

The Fits **

While training at the gym, an 11-year-old tomboy becomes entranced with a dance troupe. But the group begins to suffer from something rather strange.

Allegory on female maturity delivered with terse control by its first-time director, who here displays an enormous amount of rhythmic and compositional talent. But her ambiguous plot is pretty bloated, even at 72 minutes.

wd – Anna Rose Holmer

ph – Paul Yee

pd – Charlotte Royer

m – Danny Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans

ed – Saela Davis

cos – Zachary Sheets

p – Anna Rose Holmer, Lisa Kjerulff

Cast: Royalty Hightower, Alexis Neblett, Makyla Burnam, Da'Sean Minor, Inayah Rodgers, Antonio A.B. Grant Jr, Lauren Gibson

Things to Come **

A philosophy teacher soldiers through the death of her mother, getting fired from her job, and dealing with a husband who is cheating on her.

The most assured work yet by a filmmaker whom I have never been 100% sold on. Her quotidian narrative here, though not terribly subtle thematically, is formerly superb and intelligently rattles against any kind of standard structure in its depiction of the kind of involuntary freedom that can upend someone’s life. Spotless rather than flawless.

wd – Mia Hansen-Løve

ph – Denis Lenoir

pd – Anna Falguères

ed – Marion Monnier

cos – Rachel Raoult

p – Charles Gillibert

Cast: Isabelle Huppert, André Marcon, Edith Scob, Roman Kolinka, Sarah Le Picard

Office Christmas Party

When his uptight CEO sister threatens to shut down his branch, the branch manager throws an epic Christmas party in order to land a big client and save the day.

A Christmas comedy with more writers than laughs; unless one considers a character getting hit with something while everyone else exclaims “Oh”! to be the height of hilarity.

d – Josh Gordon, Will Speck

w – Justin Malen, Laura Solon, Dan Mazer, Jon Lucas, Scott Moore, Timothy Dowling

ph – Jeff Cutter

pd – Andrew Laws

m – Theodore Shapiro

ed – Jeff Groth, Evan Henke

p – Guymon Casady, Daniel Rappaport, Scott Stuber

Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Olivia Munn, TJ Miller, Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Vanessa Bayer, Courtney B. Vance, Rob Corddry, Abbey Lee, Sam Richardson, Jamie Chung, Randall Park