Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench

2009 romantic musical

Rating: 14/20

Plot: A jazz trumpeter and his ex-girlfriend try to move on with their lives after a break-up.

After loving both Whiplash and La La Land, I figured I'd check out this first feature from Damien Chazelle that he made while he was still in school. Don't expect anything close to the fully-formed musical extravaganza of the big colorful musical or the jazz-fueled, tension-packed drama of Whiplash here, but what you do see is the potential of Chazelle. And it's fascinating. It's a strange movie anyway, one that doesn't quite seem sure about what it wants to be. It's like a mash-up of John Cassavetes or some other intense independent black and white filmmaker and big movie musical. It's got artistic close-ups, and it's got freakin' tap-dancing. Throughout, you can tell that the director has a deep love for music and the instruments that make it, shooting a trumpet like it's a naked woman and a jazz band like he's a voyeur at an orgy of gods and goddesses.

Stand-out scenes foreshadow Chazelle's later work. The first is a lovely scene of speechless flirting on a subway. It's sensual, filmed like an action scene, and has no music or chatter at all. Impressively-edited close-ups and very subtle body language. There are a pair of big tap dance numbers, one in a restaurant for no reason other than as an excuse to have a big tap dance number. It's very nice, the camera work so simple but very creative. There's also an all-female number in another restaurant, but I was confused because they didn't appear to be wearing shoes capable of making a tapping sound. I was suspicious and really paid attention to the sound, and there were times when I couldn't tell whether the taps matched the taps. Were they dubbed taps? If so, what the hell, Chazelle? I enjoyed the songs, especially one performed by Madeline as she walks around a fountain. I don't know what the song was called, but it a gorgeous, always slightly-shifting melody hooked me.

Not a lot happens here in the story, and the characters are pretty flat. But the clash of traditional 40's movie musical extravaganza and the cheaply-made minimalism of 70's independent movie makes this a very interesting debut feature. Check it out if you enjoy Chazelle's other work at all.