Colin and Jade

Ms. Pahomov

Reel Reading

25 May 2022

Welcome to a cinematic and theatrical review of La La Land by Jade and Colin

Early on in the scene, we can see that Mia, played by Emma Stone, is illuminated while her surroundings are shrouded in darkness. This shows that she may be in the dark about some of her ns decisions.

As the dinner scene continues, Mia is slowly losing touch with not only the conversation but her general surroundings, she is longing for something more, the director shows us this by cutting to Seb.

Sebastian is also waiting for something more, these characters long for each other in their heads. Now the moviemakers are making their dream a reality.

Said best by Brian Tallerico “Characters in musicals not only understood love differently than those in traditional films but they turned that understanding into art—dancing, singing and transcending mere dialogue to become something greater, something purer, something closer to true romance.”

Mia commits to her feelings and abandons her fake life, she hears the music of a happier time and and immediately is drawn to it.

The set transitions into very unrealistic theatrical shots, especially the LA scenery.

On the website Variety, reviewer Owen Gleiberman had an astounding summary of the film, “These two meet, scuffle, and fall in love, and they do it through a series of song-and-dance numbers, composed by Justin Hurwitz (the lyrics are by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul), that are tenderly shocking in their catchy anachronistic beauty.”

The shot ends as the former lovers meet eyes for the last time in a place that has defined their lives and careers.

For my capstone, I created a mini-course centered around bringing awareness about climate change. Climate change is an overlooked topic that I thought everyone should be concerned about, especially the 9th grade class because they are the youngest generation in our school. I thought that art was a great way to capture someone’s attention. Therefore, I had the freshmen design rockets, which is our school’s mascot, completely out of recyclables. Each rocket they designed pertained to a different aspect of climate change. I split them up and allowed them to get to work. For the display, I will be hanging the rockets from the ceiling to give the effect that the rockets are flying through the sky as well as have people become more concerned about climate change issues. My next group of freshmen that I had was given the task to come up with ways they contribute to climate change. I created a Padlet and allowed them to put weekly challenges for them to slowly become self-aware about their effect on the environment. Their next project I had with them was to design a poster board that sheds light on the ways people contribute to climate change. They were inspired from their Padlet task and got to work making a giant poster that could be a self reflection. For the display, I will be hanging up the boards and connecting them like puzzle pieces. In the end I hope that the freshmen are more encouraged to be environmentally aware and continue to use creativity to speak out about a cause.