What to Stream: The Films of 'La La Land' Director Damien Chazelle
With a record-tying 14 nominations, La La Land is going to be a movie you hear mentioned quite a bit at the 89th Academy Awards on Feb. 26. Accounting for two of those nominations is one Damien Chazelle. The 32-year-old filmmaker is up for Best Achievement in Directing and Best Original Screenplay. If you saw La La Land and la-la-liked it, you should take a la-la-look at some of the other movies he’s helped bring your way. Here are three Damien Chazelle movies you can stream right now.
Whiplash
Chazelle’s first real introduction to most audiences was as the director and writer of Whiplash, which earned five Oscar nods. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay, losing out to The Imitation Game writer Graham Moore. Still, Whiplash was among the favorite movies of 2014, earning accolades for its story about a young drummer mentored by an unforgiving instructor. J.K. Simmons won an Oscar for his performance. Whiplash is available on YouTube.
Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench
So how did Chazelle get big names like Simmons and Miles Teller in Whiplash? Well, he impressed the “biz” with his much smaller but critically praised 2009 black-and-white feature, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench. You’re never going to believe it, but jazz music plays a heavy part in this movie. Anyway, it’s about a man and a woman who break up but then find their new relationships lacking. Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench is available on iTunes.
10 Cloverfield Lane
We’ve covered the two feature-length films Chazelle directed before La La Land, but he is also, of course, a writer. When a spec script titled The Cellar was bought by J.J. Abrams’s company, Bad Robot, Chazelle was brought onboard to rewrite it. That movie would go on to become 10 Cloverfield Lane, a movie featuring Mary Elizabeth Winstead as a woman who must figure out if she’s being rescued or kidnapped by an unsettling man played by John Goodman. 10 Cloverfield Lane is available on Amazon Prime.
La La Land director Damien Chazelle on whether his movie attempts to save jazz:
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