Dave Bautista’s favourite movie of the 21st century: “Just for shits and giggles”
If you were a fan of professional wrestling in the 2000s, then you knew what Dave Bautista was all about. As ‘The Animal’ Batista, the monstrous superstar tore through opponents like a knife through hot butter, quickly establishing himself as one of the top stars of the age.
However, the squared circle isn’t forever, so Bautista decided to try his hand at acting instead. Sure enough, he was great at that too.
The former WWE Champion first broke through as the hilarious alien meathead Drax the Destroyer in James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Rather than remain pigeonholed in blockbuster action roles, Bautista decided to branch out and expand his CV to include dramas, comedies, sci-fis, horrors, and just about everything else in the Hollywood catalogue. As his former rival John Cena once said, his versatility and courage makes him the greatest wrestler-turned-actor of all time.
Bautista was asked about some of his own favourite films by Rotten Tomatoes. Alongside some classics like Star Wars and The Godfather, the star decided to pick something modern “for shits and giggles”, as he put it. He opted for Damian Chazelle’s 2016 all-singing, all-dancing tale of dreams and Hollywood heartache – La La Land.
“What I really, really love about it is it’s just completely unpredictable, because up until the very end of that film, I had no idea how it was going to end, and I love that,” he said. “That is so hard to do nowadays, just to keep people guessing right up to the last two minutes of the film. Like, it’s almost impossible. They did it, and not only did it, but in a magical, exciting way. I just love that movie. And some of the shots, I mean, just technically, some of the shots were amazing. Like, I still don’t know how the hell they did that shot in the pool. When I saw it, I couldn’t believe it, and I just thought and thought and thought, and was trying to figure out how the hell they shot that.”
Released in 2016, La La Land pairs an aspiring actor (Emma Stone) with a wannabe jazz pianist (Ryan Gosling) as they navigate their relationship against the glitzy backdrop of Tinseltown. It broke records upon its release, winning Chazelle the ‘Best Director’ Oscar at the disgustingly-young age of 32 and proving that there was still room for big musical movies in the modern age.
The ending Bautista is referring to occurs after the main characters decide to break up. Mia, Stone’s character, has made it as an actor and has a daughter with another man. One night, the family visit a jazz club owned by Seb (Gosling), which brings memories flooding back and causes both parties to imagine what might have been had they stuck together. It’s a bittersweet hammer blow that reduced more than a few audience members to tears; a complex assessment of the age-old question of love versus personal success.
La La Land is now very much a classic in its own right, although maybe not on the level of Bautista’s other two picks. Still, it must have taken a lot for a man dripping with testosterone to admit that he was a fan of this emotional musical, so full props to the big guy for being so honest.
