La La Land

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By the time this review goes up, there will already be some Oscar buzz about this movie. It's already got big buzz for the Golden Globes, being nominated under such categories as Best Musical or Comedy, Best Lead Actor, Best Lead Actress, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Original Song and Best Original Score... I mean... damn! That's some pretty solid work right there. Let's not forget that this also comes from director Damien Chazelle who also did 'Whiplash' last year; a film that won Oscars for Film Editing, Sound Mixing and Supporting Actor with nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay and yes, Best Picture (losing to 'Spotlight'). So yeah, I guess we have our first real Oscar contender on our hands.

'La La Land' is a simple enough story. The plot basically involves a chance encounter between a struggling jazz musician named Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and a struggling actress named Mia (Emma Stone). As the story unfolds we watch as they fall in love, but have to do the right things in their own lives for themselves, which may very well put a wrench into the works. I can't really say too much more than that without giving anything away, but let's face it, the plot is rather basic. So what, exactly, makes this movie not only warrant a whopping 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, but ALSO end up as the #27 Top Rated movie on IMDb?

Well for starters, you just have the chemistry between these two that seems to have always sort of been there. No joke, this is a potential celebrity couple I've kinda wanted to see get together since I saw them act side-by-side in 'Crazy, Stupid Love'. The chemistry between the two leads had to be believable, and I always find these two pretty damn believable.

Aside from that, though, the film has this beautiful, flowing look and atmosphere that seems almost surreal. I loved seeing a lot of the LA backdrop through the movie, featuring pink and purple sunsets, street lights and starry skies. When there was a big musical number like 'Another Day of Sun', the colours seemed to pop, and things got pretty fun. A more subtle musical number like the Globe-nominated 'City of Stars' had a sort of deeper and more moody look to it, but still nice. And here's the thing; there actually wasn't a single musical number in this film I didn't enjoy. Most musicals end up having one or two, but this really carried it through.

Often, the film would harken back to the old days of cinema and imitate some of the art that just simply does not exist in film these days. I think my favorite part was after Sebastian and Mia officially meet, they do one called 'A Lovely Night' where it's straight up Fred Astaire-like, in-sync dancing and singing. It would remind one of an older musical from the 40s.

What i thought was probably most impressive, though, was that Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone straight up SING in this movie. No dubbing, no voice-overs, no Simba the Lion Cub situation, it's just purely them. Which was great since they can then just add their personalities within the delivery of the song. I mean, Gosling kills it with 'City of Stars', and Stone kills it with 'Audition', giving a performance perhaps just short of Anne Hathaway's 'I Dream a Dream' from 'Les Miserables".

Now, for as much as I praise the film, there are gonna be moments that may bother certian audiences in their decisions of storytellling. And that's totally fair. That said, nothing was ruined for your's truly. I actually thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end; an ending that I found NOT predictable for a love story, but it was very moving nonetheless.

If you are a fan of musicals in general, I'd highly recommend going to check it out. This has the potential to be the most awarded musical since 'Chicago', which won 6 Oscars and was nominated for 7 more!... Okay, so maybe they won't be THAT generous, but I bet it'll do pretty well. Much like it's said in one of the drive-by reviews for it you see in the trailer, "they don't make films like this anymore".

​5/5

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