There is no doubt about it: the movie of which “La La Land” reminds me the most is “An American in Paris.” I’m sure the concept behind the film was to find an undiscovered niche by creating an unfashionably retro vision of American life–think of a Beach Boys records made in 2016. The result of the election, however, put the movie in a completely new, and more compelling, context.
Everything about “La La Land” is a counterpoint to Trump’s “American carnage” speech. Set in a carefully edited and timeless version of the bluest of blue states (no crime or skyscrapers allowed), the movie practically screams that the American dream is, if difficult to attain, most definitely alive and well. It is bright, sunny, and soulful–not the ash heap of Trump’s fevered imagination.
Ironies in this exist at several levels. Hollywood movies are made by “rootless cosmopolitans,” but they are loved no less by red Americans. There is no red American Hollywood any more than there is a red American Broadway. Intellectual property is one of our greatest exports, so protecting it has for years been one of the principal objectives of our trade negotiators; the Trump Administration, regardless of its opinions of Hollywood, will be driven to do the same if it really wants to “win at trade”. And what is one of our other principal exports? Agricultural products from red America. It all fits together; red and blue culture have common elements, and both sides lose from a trade war.