Nice performances from the leads, and generally good fun.

Rating: 7/10 (17 January 2017)

I had a bit of a dilemma at the cinema last week ... go and see Felicity Jones get ill and die in A Monster Calls, or go for some escapist nonsense instead. It was a grey miserable January day, so La La Land won. It was pretty enjoyable, too. Ryan Gosling did a great job of being, e, Ryan Gosling pianist / keyboard player (which is pretty cool in itself)... and Emma Stone was absolutely fantastic as his love interest. One of her audition scenes reminded me of the incredibly powerful audition Naomi Watts does in Mulholland Drive, and that might not be a co-incidence judging from La La Land's locations. Ultimately a musical is going to stand or fall on the quality of its songs, and I'm not sure these will pass the test of time... but the whole movie was well done and a good romantic night out - unless you go along with someone you are not totally sure you want to spend the rest of your life with.