La La Land (2016)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Struggling Jazz musician Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) meets struggling actress Mia (Emma Stone) and together they try to make their mark in Hollywood.
LA LA LAND is a film that pretty much came out of nowhere and ended up grabbing fourteen Oscar-nominations. The film is a homage to Hollywood and everything that Hollywood used to produce. This, of course, is a musical so the film pays respect to the type of film that MGM and Hollywood was pumping out in the 1950s. Is the film worthy of all the praise it's getting? Calling a film overrated is something that will strike up an argument on any message board but while I don't think the film was that great, there's no question that it's an extremely charming film with two great performances.
I will start off with what I didn't love about the film. One was the opening dance number, which was impressive in regards to how it was shot but at the same time I must admit that it really didn't pull me into the film. I'd also say that I didn't love any of the songs in the picture. A couple were nice but I really didn't walk out of the theater singing any of them. Finally, I did feel that the film went on a bit too long and would have benefited from about ten-minutes being cut out.
With all of that out of the way, there was still a lot of stuff here that I really enjoyed but there's no question that the greatest thing were the two leads. Gosling and Stone were so great and so wonderfully charming together that you couldn't help but fall in love with their characters and want to see them succeed. I really thought both of them did a terrific job in their acting, their dancing and their singing and you can honestly say that they were among the most entertaining couples from recent memory. They really get to shine with the comedy, the romance and the drama and they really pack a great punch.
I also really loved the Jazz music in the picture. The music is certainly something wonderful and it just perfectly builds up the story and delivers the goods. The film also benefits from some wonderful costume and production design with brilliant uses of colors that just leap off the screen. As I said, the film is a homage to Hollywood and there's some great dialogue about older movies, older stars and of course Jazz musicians.
It's easy to see why people and especially Hollywood are in love with LA LA LAND. It's a great throwback to the type of romantic comedies and musicals that were made in a different era. I'm sure many young people were seeing this type of film for the first time. Hopefully some of those who loved this will go out and seek out the classics that this is paying homage to.
