A wonderful throwback or over-hyped?

Rating: 5/10 (19 January 2017)

La La Land is one big awards contenders of 2017, sweeping the Golden Globes and been nominated for 11 BAFTAs at the time of writing and received near universal acclaim. But is really worthy of this praise or has it been over-hyped? Mia (Emma Stone) and Seb (Ryan Gosling) are two artistic dreamers living in the City of Angels who inexplicably keeping each other in the metropolis. Mia is an aspiring actor and Seb is a jazz pianist who wants to open his own jazz club. They soon for start a relationship and encourage each other to follow their dreams, but the harsh reality of real life test them regarding the personal and professional life.
Damien Chazelle is easily considered one of the great emerging directing having already made Whiplash and now has La La Land to his credit it has been announced he would be reuniting with Ryan Gosling to make a biopic about Neil Armstrong.
La La Land opens with an excellent song-and-dance number on an LA freeway and Chazelle embraces the old-fashion nature of the film. The film celebrates the fact it was shot in cinemascope and it uses a lot of techniques that was common in the technicolor era, using long tracking shots (making the dance numbers even better) and the editing transitions. But some of the early songs do have the same structure, a soft beginning becomes a bigger numbers as the song process and then two-thirds through the song one singer has a moment of introspective before a huge finish. One of the best moments is a big tap-dancing when Mia and Seb start to get to know each other, wonderfully reflecting the musicals it's reflecting.
When Seb and Mia finally get together the musical number pretty much stop and La La Land becomes more like a serious drama about a relationship. Whilst this part of the film of fine but it was not the pastel coloured detail that made the first act such a delight. It becomes a romantic drama about the highs and lows of a relationship. There is a logic in the film having less music during its middle act because of the reality of their situation but one of the big selling points of La La Land was it meant to be an all-singing-all-dancing aware. It doesn't go back to being a musical until the third act in an extremely drawn-out ending.
The retro style and story about the struggles in Hollywood La La Land has similarities to 2011's The Artist, the story of a silent movie star whose career takes a downturn whilst an actress he helped out becomes a huge star. Both films were celebrations of a bygone era in Hollywood, using the same techniques that the films that were referred used. This is usually a great way for a film to gain awards attention.
La La Land personally reminded me of John Carney's Begin Again, both similar openings, including showing two characters having bad days, plot points and themes about success vs. artistic integrity. La La Land also looks at the reality of a relationship and artistic lifestyle and it is essentially a story about the American Dream - looking at the sacrifices people need to achieve their goals.
La La Land offered a lot of promise with its big opening and the film as a whole should have been a big song-and-dance feature throughout. There is too much of a lull after it's great opening act and whilst La La Land is enjoyable, it is not the masterpiece some have made it out to be. Moana is the best musical of 2016 and Chazelle's previous offering, Whiplash was a better film.