Should be titled after the hit song "City Of Stars" since that's all they played.

Rating: 7/10 (16 February 2017)

Don't get me wrong I really liked this movie but it's not as brilliant as it's been hyped. I'm not a big fan of musicals. Just wanted to see the results from Ryan Gosling teaching himself to play improvisational jazz piano and I wasn't disappointed. He was brilliant. So brilliant that they didn't give him enough material to do his skills justice. I mean how many times can you play "City Of Stars"? Jeez Louise, give it a rest will ya'?! I was getting sick of hearing it and I love that song!
I didn't care to compare this to 60 year old musicals, but I do remember them having more than one hit song like "Singing In The Rain" and "West Side Story". Even "Camelot" has a treasure trove of memorable songs if not hits. Oh, and don't forget "The Sound Of Music". Did I say I wasn't a big fan of musicals? OK, I kinda' miss their innocent charm, set design, ambiance and poetic improvisational expressionism through dance and song.
"La La Land" touches upon these attributes with gorgeous photography, but it becomes pretty obvious the filmmakers were paying homage to musicals of decades past that it seemed to overshadow the motivation of the actors in how they were telling a more modernized story about following one's dreams no matter the cost. Pretty clichéd plot but that's what most musicals were built on anyway. Keep it simple.
I did like the naturally relaxed delivery of Ryan and Emma's dancing and singing. Frankly, Emma's facial emoting on screen was more believable and gut wrenching than Barbara Streisand's "Funny Girl" or any other actor in a musical for that matter. And Emma can really belt it out with the best of them.
And Ryan's singing style reminded me of the "Velvet Fog" Mel Torme. Just wanted to hear more of his jazz improvisational piano that shines in the Christmas holiday scene in the restaurant. It was amazing!