Amazingly directed and acted film, with a well written script and good songs

Rating: 9/10 (29 January 2017)

"La La Land" is about two people, one an aspiring actor the other one a jazz enthusiast, who both fall for each other and whose story gets told via the manner of a musical.
Damien Chazelle returns to create his second movie, also music-centered. His previous film, "Whiplash", was one of the better films of 2014. In that movie he showed his talent, but in this one he even surpassed his previous achievements. Chazelle used incredibly long, beautiful shot takes, often accompanied with a good song, more on the songs later. These scenes are seamlessly cut together, whereby sometimes they make it seem that the scene was shot in one take, but actually had some cleverly hidden edits in them. Often these were hidden behind quick camera movements. The movie by the way begins in such a fashion, as I just described. That scene was done fantastic and set up high expectations for the rest of the film. What Damien Chazelle also did was to use vibrant colors throughout the whole film. Green, purple, yellow, red all return multiple times in the film, each end everyone having a meaning to them, which made the film more interesting.
The songs were written with care and added to the film. They each told a story that had something to do with the scene or the story, and weren't just useless songs, there to fill up the moment, or to be there and later to sell a soundtrack to double their earnings. No, they are there, because they have a meaning. The songs were beautifully written and performed, and I really understand why the Oscars have picked out two of the songs, which I also found to be two of the best songs in the film. There were of course some songs that were lesser good, but even those I found to be amusing to listen to. Not only the songs sung by the cast were good, but also the instrumentals in the background were fantastic to listen to. Those also added to the scenes that they were setting up. I do have one problem with how some of the songs were presented, but that problem mostly lies with me, and not with the movie. This problem is that at times it feels kind of forced how they start some songs. At times they just burst out of songs, which was unfitting to me. But that's the nature of a musical, so what did I expect? But at times those scenes where handled very well. I liked how the lights drained out, only focusing on the one who's going to sing, and at times the singing also happened naturally and didn't feel forced, so it's kind of a double edged sword.
I want to come back to the directing of Damien Chazelle, because I want to say a couple of things on his visual directing. That looked absolutely gorgeous. Like I've said, he used vibrant colors, which really made the scenes stand out more. The use of vibrant colors is also something that you don't see that often anymore in films, which is a shame, because look at the result "La La land" got. The framing was good and the camera movements to were fantastic. Chazelle used shadow and lightning brilliantly to created good-looking shots, and he also masters the use of focus.
Enough about that, let's move on to the acting. Ryan Gosling once again shows that he is a diverse actor and can play a whole host of characters. In this movie he gives a fantastic performance and it's no surprise that he has gotten that Oscar nomination. Emma Stone too gives a fantastic performance, at first I was a bit skeptical with her, but after the first thirty minutes or so, she persuaded me into enjoying her performance. The both of them had great on screen chemistry, whereby their relationship only became more believable and realistic.
The script was very good and the characters stood out to me the most. The story itself was straightforward and easy to follow. Nonetheless it was a good story. It was realistic and grounded, just like the characters, and that's why I liked them so much. Most of the times you get to see unrealistic characters, but here that wasn't the case. In "La La Land" you can see two relatable people, fighting to reach their dreams, accompanied with the struggle that fight brings them. Because these characters are so realistic and relatable, you also start to care for them. What I also liked about the film is that it made me appreciate jazz more, because of one particular scene, in which Ryan Gosling is enthusiastic about it trying to convince Emma Stone how good jazz can be. The scene was wonderfully written and in that scene he didn't only convince Emma Stone, but also me. The ending was weird at first, but when I realized what was going on, I started to appreciate it more and more, until the movie ended with it satisfying, yet heartbreaking conclusion. The film really plays with your emotions, and can make you feel sad and happy again in a spit second, but at the end it all felt like a feel-good movie created for people who have dreams and have trouble reaching them, what I very much appreciated.
"La La Land" was a very good musical, and this comes from someone who generally doesn't like musicals. The songs were good and so was the acting. Damien Chazelle created one of the most well directed films of the year, and that's why I am giving this one a 9.2/10.