Best Movie Musical of This Century

Rating: 10/10 (27 January 2017)

This is the one we have waited for--a thoroughly contemporary film musical that balances romance and realism in surprising ways. Director Damien Chazelle pays homage to classic musicals with allusions to, among others, Vincent Minnelli's "An American in Paris" and Jacques Demy's "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" and "The Young Girls of Rochefort." The selection of Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone to play the romantic leads is brilliant; their aspirations propel the plot and their very ordinariness makes us believe again that dreams and memories can sustain us through the inevitable separations that life brings. Wisely, every time Gosling and Stone break into song it ends too soon--too soon to bore us, soon enough to leave us wanting more. Pieces of jazz, rock, and classical music are woven through the film, but the thread that holds it together is the Justin Hurwitz score, which includes the enchanting songs "Another Day of Sun," "A Lovely Night," and "City of Stars," as well as popular singer John Legend singing his own composition "Start a Fire." Los Angeles has never looked so good, even during a traffic jam, and who knew how much we missed the xylophone?