A lot of myths about the happy ending and the American dream and whatever you want, but Los Angeles is the cruelest of cities, and not only because of the 70,000 homeless that swarm its streets. Sorry, no streets, eight-lane highways, permanently clogged as if they were the AP-7 on a Sunday afternoon at the height of Maresme after a chain accident. A private detective from the 1940s would say that he lifts you to the top of a skyscraper, makes you feel like God, famous, wealthy, or adulated by your peers for a while, and then he throws you into the void to slam into you. reality (some other actor has committed suicide by throwing himself from the mythical Hollywood sign that is in the Beachwood Canyon of the Santa Monica mountains). It’s the oldest of the stories, Norma Desmond’s on Sunset Boulevard and countless variations on the same theme.
In La La Land, the six-time Oscar-winning musical film from 2016, career aspirations and life itself get in the way of the love story between pianist Seb and actress Mia, and as much as they love each other, the ending couldn’t be more how bittersweet Last year, after losing in dramatic fashion in the promotion playoff semi-finals to Grimsby Town, it looked as if the romance between Welsh side Wrexham AFC and Hollywood was about to meet the same fate, colliding with the cruel reality of football. But sometimes sequels completely flip the script, turning a drama into a dream.
This is the case of Wrexham, one of the oldest clubs in the world -and with one of the first stadiums where international matches were played-, which had languished for 15 years in the fifth category of English football (a handful of Welsh teams, the best, compete in England). His luck changed in November 2020, when the American actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought it from the partners for two and a half million dollars. Since then it has been as famous in the United States as Liverpool or Manchester United, it is visited by tourists from all over the world and celebrities such as Hugh Jackman, Blake Lively, Paul Rudd (Ant-Man) or David Beckham sit in the box. . And the icing on the cake has been the title this year of the so-called National Conference, with the prize of promotion to fourth.
The team is not just football, it is also Hollywood, pure glamour. The documentary Welcome to Wrexham recounts its adventures through characters such as the owner of The Turf pub, next to the stadium, the coach Phil Parkinson (an expert in promotions, this was the fourth he has achieved), the goalscorer Paul Mullin (47 targets) and goalkeeper Ben Foster, who kept the goal for Manchester United in its heyday and came out of retirement to play fifth when Reynolds phoned him. In the decisive game for the title, he secured victory by saving a penalty against Notts County in injury time. How about as Hollywood history?
It’s not that the owners have written a blank check, but the players of the global phenomenon Wrexham enjoy rare privileges in their category. They did the pre-season stage in Alicante, they celebrated Christmas in Dublin and their bonus consists, on condition of winning, in making the six hundred kilometers of the trips to Eastleigh, Gateshead or Maidstone by plane.
In La La Land, Mia and Seb are not together, no matter how much the viewers cry and how much they are made for each other. In La La Land, the sequel, Wrexham fans hope Reynolds and McElhenney will stick around for life.