Great effects and great acting... But the nostalgia overload is headache-inducing

Rating: 5/10 (21 January 2017)

I saw this movie on a double date, with my best friend and these two guys that we didn't/don't know very well. It was pouring rain, there was nothing better to do, and no one wanted to see The Bye-Bye Man so this is what we saw.
There's a part where Mia (Stone) shows Sebastian (Gosling) her play for the first time, and asks him if it's too nostalgic. "That's the point!" Sebastian says, and I think that's kind of the point of this film.
Whatever town they showed in this movie was NOT NOT NOT Los Angeles, California. I grew up about four hours north of LA. I went there every summer. The L.A. in La La Land is a misty-eyed, nostalgic reinterpretation of the actual city. There's nothing wrong with that, but the movie tries way too hard. It's practically slapping you in the face with a giant nostalgia stick, screaming "LOOK AT ME - I'M SWEET AND POETIC AND NOSTALGIC!"
Granted, there are some moments when La La Land pulled it off. The party where Mia and Sebastian meet after he blows her off at that restaurant, and they go out and look over the city - that scene was tasteful and I forgot what I was watching. But then it just dived right back into it's glossy sweetness and I started internally screaming again.
I will give it credit for the whole style of the movie. The directing and sets and visual effects were stunning and new. They deserve all the awards. Stone and Gosling were fabulous actors in the roles they were given.
But the story and the tone are where it all falls apart. The plot left me angry at the characters and the tone of the movie was so sweet it gave me cavities.
The tone is a loud call for simpler times, when old stars like Taylor and Kelly and Monroe and Hepburn graced the screens. Again -- there is nothing wrong with that. But the way this movie did it was so sickeningly sugary sweet that it made my head hurt.
I think the problem is that it was set in modern day L.A. You can't portray modern day L.A. without showing some of the grit and dirty underhandedness and modern surge of technology and ideas. People trying to oppose my point will say that the movie did show this, through the whole 'Sebastian being ripped off by Keith (John Legend) and being forced to give up his art in that weird electro-jazz band'. But even that didn't quite do justice to the harsh realities of L.A. It was all sugar coated in dreams and songs and tap dancing and Emma Stone's goofy smile.
One of my favorite scenes was when Mia and Sebastian went to the movie and the observatory. When she ditched that Greg guy I was like "Yes yes yes, you go get Ryan Gosling!" During the whole hand holding thing, my date looked at me like he wanted to do the same and I kind of had to hide my hands under my legs. But hey, Mia and Sebastian made it work.
And the ending - oh the ending made my heart ache. If you're like me and read reviews marked 'spoiler' even if you haven't seen the film, I won't give it away, but the ending made my heart hurt in the best kind of way. I kind of want to give it 0 stars just because the ending made me so sad, but sad doesn't necessarily equal bad. Actually, I gave the movie a higher rating just because it takes one heck of a movie to make me feel some type of way.
Overall, it was okay. There were moments where I was grinning and laughing and cheering, and there were moments where I wanted to go bash my head against a wall. 50% great moments + 50% cheesy/terrible moments averages out to an okay movie.
Go see it. Or don't. I feel like this is one of those movies where people either hated it or they loved it. As for me, I saw it less than an hour ago. I'm honestly still trying to decide.