La La Land

UK Release Date. 13 January 2017
Certification. 12A
Running Time. 2 hours 8 mins
Director. Damien Chazelle
Cast. Ryan Gosling, John Legend, Emma Stone.
Rating. 48%

Review.

Writer and director, Damien Chazelle's La La Land is a nostalgic tribute to the MGM musicals of the genre's heyday, the 1940s and 1950s. Chazelle was careful to balance the film's timeless plot of pursuing your dreams with contemporary issues that face modern artists. 

Much of La La Land's appeal comes from the two lead actors. Following pairings in Gangster Squad and Crazy, Stupid Love, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling would appear to have an innate natural chemistry. Neither appear to be the most natural dancers (or singers) but they appear to be having so much fun, that it's hard not to get swept up in their enthusiasm.

In La La Land, Emma Stone is the aspiring actress, Mia, who, between (often painful) auditions is forced to work at a coffee shop on the Warner Bros' studio lot. Her trials and tribulations are mildly amusing, but ridiculously clichéd. Only her inherited love of classic films drives her on.

If Stone is the film's heart, then Ryan Gosling is the film's soul as frustrated jazz musician, Sebastian. He has dreams of opening up his own jazz club one day. Sebastian doesn't merely want to play jazz; wallowing in the mire of self-induced misery, Sebastian wants to save jazz - "The world says let it die. It had its time. Not on my watch."

In truth, there's not much characterisation to Mia and Sebastian.

The film is divided into four acts, corresponding with the four seasons, starting with winter. The cinematography makes strong use of lighting and production sees a bright, primary colour palette used, particularly in costume design, which gives La La Land a whimsical quality. Editor, Tom Cross who also worked with Damien Chazelle on Whiplash, moves at lightning pace early on. That is until we get to summer. The musical element is dropped. The bright colours that flooded the screen dissipate. This attractive, bright and romantic musical faded away before my eyes.

The difference between the two halves is stark. Embroiled in the poignant drama of Mia and Sebastian's relationship, in the closing stages La La Land almost forgets it is a musical.

Audacious and ambitious. At its core, La La Land is a romance for our generation, just not of this time.