Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench

3/3 Damien Chazelle films for me.

Tap dancing and jazz at its finest.

The youngest director to win an Academy Award for "La La Land" and first discovered by most with his sophomore film, "Whiplash", this is his debut from when he was still attending Harvard University.

This reminds me considerably of John Carney's "Once". A heartfelt, character driven, low budget musical that has the inklings of a true artist about to inevitably succeed in the mainstream, refining their craft slowly but surely. It should be appreciated even more for this, for their later award winning masterpieces will be far more influenced by Hollywood. Nothing much happens, but that is perfectly fine- because it is focused on the exceptional score and soundtrack. Cherish it.

Damien Chazelle's debut feels somewhere between a Jim Jarmusch indie and an Astaire-Roger musical. Here's a filmmaker with a deep love of the movie musical trying to make it work on a shoestring budget. The musical genre begs for rich production, so Chazelle tries to circumvent it with a nontraditional script; the central relationship is told in undefined fragments and almost exclusively in the less-sexy aftermath of their love. The musical elements are instead used as flourishes - sometimes daydreams, sometimes as breaks from the story. It's a mess, but one with its charms.

Chazelle's directorial strength is in detail shots and closeups that evoke a tenderness and the vulnerability of the characters. The film excels in these little character moments far more than it does in telling a complete story. Despite Chazelle's decision not to build the characters from the ground up, every so often he strikes a deeply familiar chord with just a few well-executed shots that it becomes possible to connect to Guy, Madeline and Elena's emotions.

The centerpiece of the film though is Justin Hurwitz's score, which feels timeless yet not overly cliche and predictable. The quality of the music, including what was presumably Jason Palmer's (Guy) own trumpet playing, puts the score in a class that the movie's visual quality can't keep up with to the point that you might assume Chazelle just purchased or borrowed professional music.

It's always nice to see how a now-esteemed director pulled together a project with minimal resources. Chazelle wanted to tell a love story that married jazz and musicals and he finds a way to do it, even if the finished project is rough around the edges and a little defiant of mainstream tastes.

I definitely sought this out because of a particular reason- Damian Chazelle and Whiplash. Whiplash is an amazing film, intense, full of passion, and so I wanted to see his debut. It's a solid debut, if unremarkable and sort of dull at times. It's very natural and there's really nothing that would indicate the strong intensity in Whiplash. The only similarities are really that instruments and music are at the core (just like, also, the film he co-wrote grand Piano). Yeah, I could see many not liking this at all or liking Whiplash, or even, liking this or not Whiplash because both are so different in style so there's no telling which way the passion will go. I recommend it slightly, but it's not totally recommended and not a home run by any means

Damien Chazelle's first feature length film isn't an easy one to dissect. Filmed like an early John Cassavetes' movie and told with little to no dialogue at all, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench is much more so an exploration into how difficult it is to maintain love than it is a musical like Chazelle's latest feature, La La Land. But it's Chazelle's grasp on the ups and down's of relationships that make this yet another interesting directorial effort from him. All 3 of his films to this point have involved Jazz, and all 3 of them have also dealt with characters trying to balance their love life with pursuing their Jazz related dreams. 'Guy and Madeline' isn't as intense as Whiplash nor as viscerally memorable as La La Land, but for a first- time feature, it definitely impresses. An occasional dance number, unique camera movement, and long unedited takes make for quite the viewing experience. Again, there's little dialogue, so I can't say I was as invested in the characters as I should have been, but sometimes scenes are more powerful when less is said (see: the final scene). If anything, this was an interesting watch considering all we know about Chazelle's career up to this point.

6.7/10

There are so many similarities between this movie and the later La La Land: the perils of a relationship during times of rapid changing professional fortunes, the overall narrative tones, and the music score.

It is a fundamental movie to start the arc of Chazelle creativity, and while the obvious budgetary constraints are interfering with the narrative, there are many great shots and great Music.

Definitely recommended if watching movie is for you not exclusively entertainment but also part of an investigation of the true quality of the Art: expressing something fresh that can only be conveyed by potion pictures.