An Exercise in Classical Hollywood Filmmaking

Rating: 2/10 (3 December 2016)

La La Land, the wildly beloved Oscar frontrunner, is just as mystifying as critics and audiences said it was. The sweeping cinematography, the perfect, strategically placed lighting, the performances, the dance numbers...it all makes La La Land exactly what people were NOT expecting out of 21st century musical. This is a mystifying burst of classical Hollywood filmmaking. To that effect, there is nothing new rather just a new voice to an old dialog.
Directed by Damien Chazzelle, La La Land is an analytical odyssey of the price of fame as told through the eyes of two big dreamers, an aspiring actress (Emma Stone) and a struggling Jazz musician (Ryan Gosling) as they coast through life in Los Angeles. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are fantastic in this film. Emma Stone gives a career best performance and seems to be riding the same prestigious wave she caught with 2014's Birdman. Gosling is equally great but we've come to expect this type of performance from him. The charismatic dreamer with a golden tongue fits Gosling a little too well at this point even if he does it better than any other working actor in Hollywood. While the film is well acted and the choreography in the dance numbers are mesmerizing, La La Land is still a hard film to recommend to anyone not already gung ho for musicals
Despite being toted as the best film of the year, La La Land is exceptionally underwritten. Trading great storytelling for grand musical numbers that are expertly planned and executed, Damien Chazzelle knows the film's strengths and weaknesses. While he plays off of the film's strengths in an expert fashion, he does very little to cover up the film's number one weakness: its script. However, despite this being a weakness, Chazzelle does a wonderful job at making us forget the problems and sinks us into enjoying the film for what its worth.
Overall, La La Land is most certainly an ambitious yet flawed musical from Damien Chazzelle which proves that Whiplash was far from a fluke. Featuring a career best performance from Emma Stone and brilliant camera work along with excellent choreography in its musical numbers, La La Land is a film that will most certainly leave you feeling satisfied even if it doesn't hold the lasting power of Whiplash.