We live in an age of parody. Parody men, parody women, parody marriage, parody politicians, parody scholars, parody movies, parody reality. And the quickest way to become a social or a critical or a moral or an intellectual outcast is to fail to take the parody for the genuine article — if only by noticing the parodic element in it. Damien Chazelle’s La La Land would seem rejoice in its multiple parodies — along with its own self-absorption, echoing that of its two main characters — with constant allusions to other movies, especially those out of a Hollywood past that it is ostensibly celebrating by "bringing back" the big movie musical. And yet it also seems to be expected that we will overlook all the ways in which it is unlike the movies it appears to be imitating. Or like it all the more on their account.