- 注释版
- 纯净版
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By A. O. SCOTT
DEC. 8, 2016
[1] It starts with a traffic jam, a sweltering ribbon of frustration on a Los Angeles freeway. All of a sudden, a melody emerges from the squalling of horns and the cacophony of competing radio stations, the commuters leap from their cars, and a big, brazenly sincere movie-musical song-and-dance number is underway.
词汇词组:
1) Sweltering /ˈsweltərɪŋ/:燥热的
例:In the summer, it's sweltering in the smaller classrooms.
2) Emerge/iˈmɜːrdʒ/ from:自....出现;从....显露出来 例:The swimmer emerged from the lake.
3) Commuter/kəˈmjuːtər/:通勤者。动词形式为 commute/kəˈmjuːt/ 4) Brazenly/ˈbreɪznli/:毫不掩饰地，明目张胆地，不觉羞耻地。
例:She had brazenly admitted allowing him back into the house.重难点句:
It starts with a traffic jam, a sweltering ribbon of frustration on a Los Angeles freeway. All of a sudden, a melody emerges from the squalling of horns and the cacophony of competing radio stations, the commuters leap from their cars, and a big, brazenly sincere movie-musical song-and-dance number is underway. 影片的开始镜头是洛杉矶高速上，让人感觉燥热又沮丧的堵车(镜头)。突 然，音乐就从鸣笛声和各种车载电台的噪杂声中出现了，那些想涌入洛杉矶 的人们从车里跳出来，一个场面宏大，完全沉浸自我的音乐电影的歌舞场面 就出现了。
分析:a ribbon of sth,我们理解为一长条的什么东西，文中指的就是那堵车
牌的长队，我们没必要翻译出来。A melody emerges from，the commuters leap from 和 a big 什么 number is，这三个句子是排比，而且，number 这个词有 一段歌舞的意思。
[2] An early verse, sung by a chipper young woman in a yellow dress, is a kind of overture, hinting at the theme of the bittersweet fairy tale to follow. She recalls leaving her hometown boyfriend behind to pursue fame and fortune here in La La Land, a quaint old nickname for Los Angeles that is also the name of Damien Chazelle’s charming new movie.
词汇词组:
5)Overture /ˈoʊvərtʃər/:序曲，前奏曲。复数形式表主动建立友好关系的 姿态。
例:They began making overtures to the Irish government. 6) Quaint /kweɪnt/:古雅的
例:Why not stay a night in this quaint seaside village?
[3] The ingénue in the yellow dress will vanish from the story, which is concerned with the entwined romantic and creative doings of an actress named Mia (who is behind the wheel of a Prius) and a jazz pianist named Sebastian (who is pushing a shiny crimson beater). The kicky opening sequence serves as an audition piece, a mini-“Chorus Line” acquainting us with the crowd from which these two gorgeous faces will emerge. Mia’s face belongs to Emma Stone, Sebastian’s to Ryan Gosling, so you know what I’m talking about.
词汇词组:
7) Entwine /ɪnˈtwaɪn/:交错，缠绕，联系 例:Her destiny was entwined with his.
8) Crimson /ˈkrɪmzn/:深红色
9) Acquaint /əˈkweɪnt/:使熟悉，使认识
例:Please acquaint me with the facts of the case.重难点句:
The ingénue in the yellow dress will vanish from the story, which is concerned with the entwined romantic and creative doings of an actress named Mia (who is behind the wheel of a Prius) and a jazz pianist named Sebastian (who is pushing a shiny crimson beater).
这是个关于一个叫 Mia 的女演员(她开了一辆普锐斯)和一个叫 Sebastian 的爵士乐钢琴手(他开了一辆扎眼的深红色小破车)之间交错着的爱情与创 造力的故事，而那个穿着黄色裙子天真无邪的姑娘不久就从这个故事中消失 了。
分析:which is concerned with关于什么的，后置定语来修饰the story，of 是一个所属关系，是 Mia 和 Sebastian 的 doings。Behind the wheel of 开什么
车，beater 是那种比较破的可以随便造的小破车。
[4] But even though they’re played by movie stars, Mia and Seb (as he’s sometimes called) have a long way to go. They are still swimming in a teeming pool of strivers and seekers. Every car from Glendale to Santa Monica holds an aspiring artist or performer of some kind or other. If they shared their rides, the commute might be easier and the smog less heavy, but of course part of the point is that each one makes the trip alone.
词汇词组:
10) Teeming /ˈtiːmɪŋ/:人头攒动的，形容人多。
例:Families were attempting to survive on their own on the teeming streets of Manila.
11) Aspiring /əˈspaɪərɪŋ/:有志向的，有抱负的 例:Aspiring musicians need hours of practice every day.
[5] That first song, one of a bouquet of compositions written for the movie by Justin Hurwitz, with lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, is called “Another Day of Sun,” and it is the movie’s way of auditioning for the audience, testing our tolerance for a bold blend of nostalgia and novelty. Can a generation raised on “Glee” and the “High School Musical” franchise and besotted by newfangled stage musicals like “Book of Mormon” and “Hamilton” find room in its heart for a movie that unabashedly evokes “The Young Girls of Rochefort” and “An American in Paris”?
词汇词组:
12) Nostalgia /nəˈstældʒə/:怀旧。形容词 nostalgic /nəˈstældʒɪk/ 例:She is filled with nostalgia for her own college days.
13) Besotted /bɪˈsɑːtɪd/:迷恋于，痴迷于 例:He is completely besotted with his new girlfriend.
14) Newfangled /ˌnuːˈfæŋɡld/:新奇的，新设计的(含贬义，不实用) 例:I really don't understand these newfangled computer games that my grandchildren play.重难点句:
Can a generation raised on “Glee” and the “High School Musical” franchise and besotted by newfangled stage musicals like “Book of Mormon” and “Hamilton” find room in its heart for a movie that unabashedly evokes “The Young Girls of Rochefort” and “An American in Paris”?
那些看着Glee和High School Musical这种作品长大，并且痴迷于Book of Mormon 和 Hamilton 这种新型舞台音乐剧的人，会在心里留出一部分空间给 那种能让你一下子就想到 The Young Girls of Rochefort 和 An American in Paris 的电影么?
分析:raised 和 besotted 是两个并列的分词后置定语来修饰 a generation，
find是整个主句的谓语，a movie that后面是对movie的定语修饰。“The Young Girls of Rochefort” 和 “An American in Paris”是差不多半个多世纪前的歌舞 片。
[6] Why not? Mr. Chazelle, whose previous features (“Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench” and “Whiplash”) were full of music and brash, youthful energy, is a natural showman and a canny craftsman. He wears his influences on his sleeve, but he wears them lightly. For all its echoes and allusions, “La La Land” is too lively and too earnest for mere pastiche. It doesn’t so much look back longingly at past masters like Vincente Minnelli, Nicholas Ray, Stanley Donen and Jacques Demy (to name a few) as tap into their mojo, insisting on their modernity and its own classicism in the same gesture.
词汇词组:
15) Brash/bræʃ/:莽撞的
例:Beneath his brash exterior, he's still a little boy inside.
16) Allusion/əˈluːʒn/:暗示， 及。
例:His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings.
17) Pastiche /pæˈstiːʃ/:模仿作品
例:a pastiche of the classic detective story重难点句:
For all its echoes and allusions, “La La Land” is too lively and too earnest for mere pastiche. It doesn’t so much look back longingly at past masters like Vincente Minnelli, Nicholas Ray, Stanley Donen and Jacques Demy (to name a few) as tap into their mojo, insisting on their modernity and its own classicism in the same gesture. 尽管其中有很多呼应和暗示，但《爱乐之城》的活力和真诚，它不仅仅是一 部模仿作品。它并没有急切的回望大师级的作品(Vincente Minnelli, Nicholas Ray, Stanley Donen and Jacques Demy)，融入他们在创作时的技巧，而是坚 持自己的古典与现代共存的风格。
分析:第一句话中，我们要能够体会到作者是在说，《爱乐之城》too lively，too earnest，以致不能仅仅看作是一个 pastiche。第二句中，as tap into sth， 我们理解为融入(利用)什么，insisting on 动名词作状语来表伴随，说的是 《爱乐之城》在坚持这些东西。
[7] Mia and Seb are throwbacks — if not quite to Ginger and Fred then surely to Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney or Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly — but they are also citizens of the present. They are better at acting than the other stuff, able to express emotion in nonmusical scenes with candor and conviction, but a little stiff-limbed and wobbly-voiced when the moment arrives for hoofing and chirping. In this, they’re pretty much the opposite of those earlier performers, who were vaudevillian troupers before they were thespians.
词汇词组:
18) Candor /ˈkændər/:坦白，直率
19) Vaudevillian [,vodə'vɪljən]:轻歌舞剧表演者
20) Trouper /ˈtruːpər/:有经验的表演者，台柱子
21) Thespian /ˈθespiən/:演员(一种幽默的说法)重难点句:
They are better at acting than the other stuff, able to express emotion in nonmusical scenes with candor and conviction, but a little stiff-limbed and wobbly-voiced when the moment arrives for hoofing and chirping. 他们更擅长演戏而不是其他的什么(唱歌跳舞)，能够直率地有信念地在非 音乐表演场景去表达感情，但是当他们需要去跳舞唱歌的时候，就显得有点 四肢僵硬和五音不全了。
分析:be better at acting 和 be able to express 是并列，hoofing 指跳舞，chirping 指唱歌。
[8] Seb’s fussy jazzman antiquarianism is, in any case, an entirely plausible millennial affectation. His vintage car has a cassette deck in the dashboard, and he lives in a shabby apartment amid stacks of vinyl records and old concert posters. His prized possession is a piano stool that supposedly once belonged to Hoagy Carmichael, and he’s upset when his unsentimental sister (the great, all-too-briefly seen Rosemarie DeWitt) sits on it.
词汇词组:
22) Fussy /ˈfʌsi/:吹毛求疵的，挑剔的 例:Our teacher is very fussy about punctuation.
23) Plausible /ˈplɔːzəbl/:看起来合理的
例:The only plausible explanation is that he forgot.
24) Vintage /ˈvɪntɪdʒ/:复古的，精品的 例:She loves buying vintage clothing.
25) Vinyl /ˈvaɪnl/ record /ˈrekərd/:黑胶唱片
26) Supposedly /səˈpoʊzɪdli/:据说
例:The novel is supposedly based on a true story.重难点句:
Seb’s fussy jazzman antiquarianism is, in any case, an entirely plausible millennial affectation.
Seb 这种爵士人的复古挑剔感，在任何情况，都是好像合乎情理千年一遇的 “作态”。分析:看这句话应该想到辜鸿铭先生，留着辫子给学生们大讲西方现代文 明，一个人还坚守着大清国的传统感。
[9] In his approach to work, Seb is a proud purist, perpetually oppressed and affronted by the prospect of compromise. To pay the rent, he is obliged to take what he regards as demeaning gigs: tickling out Christmas carols and show tunes at a restaurant (the manager is J. K. Simmons, the fearsome Oscar-winner from “Whiplash”); doing ’80s pop hits with a knowingly cheesy cover band; touring with a combo fronted by an old friend who has made it big.
词汇词组:
27) Affront /əˈfrʌnt/:侮辱，冒犯
例:He hoped they would not feel affronted if they were not invited.
28) Be obliged /əˈblaɪdʒd/ to:不得不去....
例:You are obliged to assign to me your firm by the contract.
29) Demeaning /dɪˈmiːnɪŋ/:降低身份的，有损人格的 例:He found it demeaning to work for his former employee.
30) Cheesy /ˈtʃiːzi/:烂俗的
例:That’s the cheesiest chat-up line I’ve ever heard.重难点句:
In his approach to work, Seb is a proud purist, perpetually oppressed and affronted by the prospect of compromise.
在找工作上，Seb 是一个骄傲的理想主义者，长期的被不得不妥协前景压迫 和侮辱着。分析:理想和现实永远都是冲突的，送给大家一句话，“before you can do what you love; you gotta love what you do now and do it perfectly.”
[10] That friend, Keith, is played by the real-life R&B star John Legend, whose affable participation presents an interesting challenge to Seb’s dogmatic traditionalism. It seems doubtful that Mr. Legend would have shown up to perform music that he thought was bad, and Keith’s unapologetic commercialism is less a strawman for Seb’s high-mindedness than a plausible counterargument. The difference between selling out and breaking through is not always clear, and “La La Land” is not so hypocritical as to pretend otherwise.
词汇词组:
31) Dogmatic /dɔːɡˈmætɪk/:教条的，自以为是的
例:There is a danger of becoming too dogmatic about teaching methods.
32) Hypocritical /ˌhɪpəˈkrɪtɪkl/:虚伪的
例:It would be hypocritical of me to have a church wedding when I don't believe in God.重难点句:
It seems doubtful that Mr. Legend would have shown up to perform music that he thought was bad, and Keith’s unapologetic commercialism is less a strawman for Seb’s high-mindedness than a plausible counterargument.
Mr. Legend 去上台表演 Seb 觉得并不好的音乐这个事儿看起来是不太靠谱的 (有疑问的)，Keith 那种倔强的纯商业主义思想并不是 Seb 的古典爵士乐 的一个假想敌(纸老虎)，而是有理有据的反驳。分析:对于这句话的理解，我们要明白，keith 和 Legend 是一个概念，
unapologetic commercialism和high-mindedness是对立的观点，A is less B than C 的句型是 A 不是 B，而是 C。影片那 unapologetic commercialism 与 Seb 的 传统古典爵士乐对比，本来 Seb 是觉得这种形式是 doubtful 的，结果发现它 不是一个 strawman，而是一个 plausible counterargument。
[11] This is especially true in Mia’s case. She works as a barista at a coffee shop on the Warner Bros.’ lot, dashing off to audition for small roles in dubious films and television shows. But, of course, the line between art and junk is also blurry, partly because to qualify for the junk you must be absolutely dedicated to your art. Which Mia is, in a way that magnifies Ms. Stone’s extraordinary discipline, poise and naturalness.
词汇词组:
33) Barista /bəˈriːstə/:咖啡店店员
34) Dubious /ˈduːbiəs/:可疑的，模棱两可的(分不清好坏的)
例:They consider the plan to be of dubious benefit to most families. 35) Blurry /ˈblɜːri/:模糊的，不清楚的
例:As the train climbed higher, their profiles gradually faded into blurry
silhouettes on the landscape.
36) Dedicated /ˈdedɪkeɪtɪd/:致力于
例:She is dedicated to her job.重难点句:
But, of course, the line between art and junk is also blurry, partly because to qualify for the junk you must be absolutely dedicated to your art. Which Mia is, in a way that magnifies Ms. Stone’s extraordinary discipline, poise and naturalness. 当然，不过艺术与垃圾的界限也是很模糊的，部分原因是因为，你要想有资 格去做这些垃圾的作品，也必须全身心的投入到你的艺术中去，Mia 就是这 样——在某种程度上放大了“石头姐”非同寻常的自律，镇静和自然。
分析:在追梦的过程中，我们大部分人都要曲线救国，你不去接那些不起
眼的小角色/垃圾角色，怎么去进入这个圈子的门槛儿呢?但你能够胜任这 些个小角色的前 就是你对你所追求的艺术的全身心的投入，而电影中的 Mia 这个角色更像是真实的演员“石头姐”的一个写照一样，真实放大了她 的人生。To qualify for the junk 是目的状语，which Mia is，个人觉得此处作 者写的(语法结构上)太随意了，which 引导一个非限定性定语从句，Mia 就是那样——去追梦的同时，忠诚于自己的艺术追求，该接小角色或垃圾角 色也会去接的，in a way that 后面是定语从句，来讲 Mia 怎么个放大了真实 的“石头姐”。
[12] The real tension in “La La Land” is between ambition and love, and perhaps the most up-to-date thing about it is the way it explores that ancient conflict. A cynical but not inaccurate way to put this would be to describe it as a careerist movie about careerism. But that would be to slight Mr. Chazelle’s real and uncomfortable insight, which is that the drive for professional success is, for young people at the present time, both more realistic and more romantic than the pursuit of boy-meets-girl happily-ever-after. Love is contingent. Art is commitment.
词汇词组:
37) Contingent /kənˈtɪndʒənt/:取决于的，临时的
例:All payments are contingent upon satisfactory completion dates.重难点句:
A cynical but not inaccurate way to put this would be to describe it as a careerist movie about careerism. But that would be to slight Mr. Chazelle’s real and uncomfortable insight, which is that the drive for professional success is, for young people at the present time, both more realistic and more romantic than the pursuit of boy-meets-girl happily-ever-after. 一个让你觉得可能不太舒服但又不能说不正确的方式来讲就是，把它 述成 一个关于事业之上的事业主义者的电影，但如果真这么去看那就低估了 Chazelle 真实的且让人不舒服的见解了，这个见解就是，对于现在的年轻人 来说，追求事业成功的动力要比仅仅是追求男欢女爱和王子与公主幸福的生 活了下去这种爱情更加的现实更加的浪漫。
分析:第一句话的核心谓语是 would be，之前的主语里 put 有表达的意思，
cynical 我们理解为说话直会让人感觉到不舒服但又一想感觉可能也不无道 理的意思，第二句话里 slight 是一个动词，which is that 是非限定性定语从句， 来去修饰 insight，that 后面又是非限定性定语从句里的宾语从句，在这个宾 语从句里，drive 是核心主语，is both more realistic and more romantic 是核 心谓语成分框架。
[13] As moviegoers, we might prefer not to choose, and in this case we don’t really have to. “La La Land” succeeds both as a fizzy fantasy and a hard-headed fable, a romantic comedy and a showbiz melodrama, a work of sublime artifice and touching authenticity. The artifice lies in the gorgeous colors, the suave camera movements and the elegant wide-screen compositions. In the songs and choreography too, of course, though it has to be said that, with one or two exceptions, these are more competent than dazzling. You’re more likely to remember what you saw than what you heard.
词汇词组:
38) Hard-headed:头脑冷静的
39) Sublime/səˈblaɪm/:卓越超群的 例:The location of the hotel is sublime.
40) Artifice/ˈɑːrtɪfɪs/:技巧，诡计 例:Pretending to faint was merely (an) artifice.
41) Lie in:在于
例:The problem lies in deciding when to intervene.
42) Suave/swɑːv/:自信文雅的
例:The manager was suave and sophisticated.重难点句:
“La La Land” succeeds both as a fizzy fantasy and a hard-headed fable, a romantic comedy and a showbiz melodrama, a work of sublime artifice and touching authenticity. 《爱乐之城》是成功的，不论是作为一个轻幻想剧还是一个冷静的寓言故事， 爱情喜剧或是一个娱乐的剧情片亦或是一部集高超的技巧和感人的真诚一 体的作品。
重难点句:
The naturalness comes from the stars, and from the filmmaker’s disarming infatuation with the place apotheosized in song as the “City of Stars.” 自然之感来自于群星(双关语，天上的星星和大明星)，也来自于电影制作 者对这个如歌曲“星耀之城”所赞颂的这个地方的疯狂迷恋。
[14] The naturalness comes from the stars, and from the filmmaker’s disarming infatuation with the place apotheosized in song as the “City of Stars.” Taking his place in a long tradition of besotted Easterners, Mr. Chazelle (from New Jersey by way of Harvard) can’t stop looking up at the palm trees silhouetted against the evening sky. The four chapters that track the changing seasons are a sly joke about the weather, which is always perfect. The magic hour — that purple-and-orange twilight cherished by generations of cineastes — seems to last for weeks on end. The Griffith Observatory might as well be heaven itself.
词汇词组:
43) Infatuation/ɪnˌfætʃuˈeɪʃn/:迷恋，痴心 例:It isn't love, it's just a passing infatuation.
44) Silhouette/ˌsɪluˈet/:侧影，轮廓，也可作动词，把轮廓显现出来 例:A figure stood in the doorway, silhouetted against the light.
[15] Like a capable bandleader or stage illusionist, Mr. Chazelle knows how to structure a set, to slacken the pace at times in order to build toward a big finish. He memorably pushed “Whiplash” to a complex and thrilling musical climax, and he outdoes himself in the last 20 minutes of “La La Land,” and outdoes just about every other director of his generation, wrapping intense and delicate emotions in sheer, intoxicating cinematic bliss.
词汇词组:
45) Intoxicating /ɪnˈtɑːksɪkeɪtɪŋ/:令人兴奋的，让人迷醉的陶醉的
例:Power can be intoxicating.重难点句:
he outdoes himself in the last 20 minutes of “La La Land,” and outdoes just about every other director of his generation, wrapping intense and delicate emotions in sheer, intoxicating cinematic bliss.
导演在《爱乐之城》的最后 20 分钟里超越自我，也超越了他同时代的其他 任何一个导演，把紧张和细微的情绪包括在了一个纯粹的令人陶醉的影院享 受之中。
[16] The final sequence — one last audition, followed by a swirl of rapturous, heart-tugging music and ballet — effectively cashes the check the rest of the movie has written. On first viewing, for the first 90 minutes or so, you may find your delight shadowed by skepticism. Where is this going? Can this guy pull it off? Are these kids going to make it? Should we care? By the end, those questions vanish under a spell of enchantment.
词汇词组:
46) Rapturous /ˈræptʃərəs/:狂喜的
例:The Olympic team was given a rapturous welcome.重难点句:
The final sequence — one last audition, followed by a swirl of rapturous, heart-tugging music and ballet — effectively cashes the check the rest of the movie has written. 最后的桥段，最后一次试镜，紧接着就是狂喜与揪心的音乐和芭蕾，成功的 将之前电影所有的铺垫所造就的包袱一下子抖了出来了。
分析:整个句子的谓语是 cashes，the rest of the movie has written 是后置定 语来修饰 the check。
来源:
By A. O. SCOTT
DEC. 8, 2016
[1] It starts with a traffic jam, a sweltering ribbon of frustration on a Los Angeles freeway. All of a sudden, a melody emerges from the squalling of horns and the cacophony of competing radio stations, the commuters leap from their cars, and a big, brazenly sincere movie-musical song-and-dance number is underway.
[2] An early verse, sung by a chipper young woman in a yellow dress, is a kind of overture, hinting at the theme of the bittersweet fairy tale to follow. She recalls leaving her hometown boyfriend behind to pursue fame and fortune here in La La Land, a quaint old nickname for Los Angeles that is also the name of Damien Chazelle’s charming new movie.
[3] The ingénue in the yellow dress will vanish from the story, which is concerned with the entwined romantic and creative doings of an actress named Mia (who is behind the wheel of a Prius) and a jazz pianist named Sebastian (who is pushing a shiny crimson beater). The kicky opening sequence serves as an audition piece, a mini-“Chorus Line” acquainting us with the crowd from which these two gorgeous faces will emerge. Mia’s face belongs to Emma Stone, Sebastian’s to Ryan Gosling, so you know what I’m talking about.
[4] But even though they’re played by movie stars, Mia and Seb (as he’s sometimes called) have a long way to go. They are still swimming in a teeming pool of strivers and seekers. Every car from Glendale to Santa Monica holds an aspiring artist or performer of some kind or other. If they shared their rides, the commute might be easier and the smog less heavy, but of course part of the point is that each one makes the trip alone.
[5] That first song, one of a bouquet of compositions written for the movie by Justin Hurwitz, with lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, is called “Another Day of Sun,” and it is the movie’s way of auditioning for the audience, testing our tolerance for a bold blend of nostalgia and novelty. Can a generation raised on “Glee” and the “High School Musical” franchise and besotted by newfangled stage musicals like “Book of Mormon” and “Hamilton” find room in its heart for a movie that unabashedly evokes “The Young Girls of Rochefort” and “An American in Paris”?
[6] Why not? Mr. Chazelle, whose previous features (“Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench” and “Whiplash”) were full of music and brash, youthful energy, is a natural showman and a canny craftsman. He wears his influences on his sleeve, but he wears them lightly. For all its echoes and allusions, “La La Land” is too lively and too earnest for mere pastiche. It doesn’t so much look back longingly at past masters like Vincente Minnelli, Nicholas Ray, Stanley Donen and Jacques Demy (to name a few) as tap into their mojo, insisting on their modernity and its own classicism in the same gesture.
[7] Mia and Seb are throwbacks — if not quite to Ginger and Fred then surely to Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney or Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly — but they are also citizens of the present. They are better at acting than the other stuff, able to express emotion in nonmusical scenes with candor and conviction, but a little stiff-limbed and wobbly-voiced when the moment arrives for hoofing and chirping. In this, they’re pretty much the opposite of those earlier performers, who were vaudevillian troupers before they were thespians.
[8] Seb’s fussy jazzman antiquarianism is, in any case, an entirely plausible millennial affectation. His vintage car has a cassette deck in the dashboard, and he lives in a shabby apartment amid stacks of vinyl records and old concert posters. His prized possession is a piano stool that supposedly once belonged to Hoagy Carmichael, and he’s upset when his unsentimental sister (the great, all-too-briefly seen Rosemarie DeWitt) sits on it.
[9] In his approach to work, Seb is a proud purist, perpetually oppressed and affronted by the prospect of compromise. To pay the rent, he is obliged to take what he regards as demeaning gigs: tickling out Christmas carols and show tunes at a restaurant (the manager is J. K. Simmons, the fearsome Oscar-winner from “Whiplash”); doing ’80s pop hits with a knowingly cheesy cover band; touring with a combo fronted by an old friend who has made it big.
[10] That friend, Keith, is played by the real-life R&B star John Legend, whose affable participation presents an interesting challenge to Seb’s dogmatic traditionalism. It seems doubtful that Mr. Legend would have shown up to perform music that he thought was bad, and Keith’s unapologetic commercialism is less a strawman for Seb’s high-mindedness than a plausible counterargument. The difference between selling out and breaking through is not always clear, and “La La Land” is not so hypocritical as to pretend otherwise.
[11] This is especially true in Mia’s case. She works as a barista at a coffee shop on the Warner Bros.’ lot, dashing off to audition for small roles in dubious films and television shows. But, of course, the line between art and junk is also blurry, partly because to qualify for the junk you must be absolutely dedicated to your art. Which Mia is, in a way that magnifies Ms. Stone’s extraordinary discipline, poise and naturalness.
[12] The real tension in “La La Land” is between ambition and love, and perhaps the most up-to-date thing about it is the way it explores that ancient conflict. A cynical but not inaccurate way to put this would be to describe it as a careerist movie about careerism. But that would be to slight Mr. Chazelle’s real and uncomfortable insight, which is that the drive for professional success is, for young people at the present time, both more realistic and more romantic than the pursuit of boy-meets-girl happily-ever-after. Love is contingent. Art is commitment.
[13] As moviegoers, we might prefer not to choose, and in this case we don’t really have to. “La La Land” succeeds both as a fizzy fantasy and a hard-headed fable, a romantic comedy and a showbiz melodrama, a work of sublime artifice and touching authenticity. The artifice lies in the gorgeous colors, the suave camera movements and the elegant wide-screen compositions. In the songs and choreography too, of course, though it has to be said that, with one or two exceptions, these are more competent than dazzling. You’re more likely to remember what you saw than what you heard.
[14] The naturalness comes from the stars, and from the filmmaker’s disarming infatuation with the place apotheosized in song as the “City of Stars.” Taking his place in a long tradition of besotted Easterners, Mr. Chazelle (from New Jersey by way of Harvard) can’t stop looking up at the palm trees silhouetted against the evening sky. The four chapters that track the changing seasons are a sly joke about the weather, which is always perfect. The magic hour — that purple-and-orange twilight cherished by generations of cineastes — seems to last for weeks on end. The Griffith Observatory might as well be heaven itself.
[15] Like a capable bandleader or stage illusionist, Mr. Chazelle knows how to structure a set, to slacken the pace at times in order to build toward a big finish. He memorably pushed “Whiplash” to a complex and thrilling musical climax, and he outdoes himself in the last 20 minutes of “La La Land,” and outdoes just about every other director of his generation, wrapping intense and delicate emotions in sheer, intoxicating cinematic bliss.
[16] The final sequence — one last audition, followed by a swirl of rapturous, heart-tugging music and ballet — effectively cashes the check the rest of the movie has written. On first viewing, for the first 90 minutes or so, you may find your delight shadowed by skepticism. Where is this going? Can this guy pull it off? Are these kids going to make it? Should we care? By the end, those questions vanish under a spell of enchantment.