La La Land

Rating: 10/10 (26 January 2017)

I definitely have to join myself to the multitudes acclaiming La La Land as a "love letter to Hollywood". I would just add that it's in fact a love letter to the IDEA of Hollywood... not the neighborhood from Los Ángeles full of homeless, drug dealers and "trannies", but that Utopian "dream factory" where love is instantaneous, sincere and eternal, and where talent, with a bit of luck, invariably leads to stardom... or at least absolute happiness. It's the same, isn't it? And when we add the musical numbers, the result is a delicate confection which is similar to a cotton candy: delicious but almost intangible. The difference is that La La Land will remain on our palate for a long time due to its sticky songs, excellent screenplay and extraordinary visual style. In conclusion, an unforgettable experience which deserves a very enthusiastic recommendation to the fans of cinema and the musicals in general. In the leading roles, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone display their talent and charisma once more, and both form a magnetic couple. And then, we have the wonderful musical numbers conceived by director Damien Chazelle and his talented creative team, including composer Justin Hurwitz and choreographer Mandy Moore (not the one you are thinking about). From the first seconds of La La Land, Chazelle establishes his amazing vision with a musical number set on a Los Ángeles freeway, during the rush hour. And, in case that wasn't ambitious enough, cinematographer Linus Sandgren employs a graceful camera which moves through the scenes like one more dancer, with fluid and spontaneous movements which hide their careful planning. In my humble opinion, the camera work of La La Land rivals the one of Birdman, and I'm not exaggerating. I won't reveal the rest of the musical numbers, but I will just say that each one of them works perfectly to display the music, the actors and, of course, the city of Los Ángeles. The screenplay is perfectly written, and it doesn't only work to introduce the musical numbers, because it tells a very interesting story by itself. And even though Gosling and Stone are the absolute owners of the movie, I also have to mention the presence of J.K. Simmons, Rosemarie DeWitt and John Legend (yes, the one you are thinking about), who bring energy and conviction to their brief roles. In conclusion, La La Land is a brilliant musical movie, and as I previously said, I recommend it with a lot of enthusiasm. And, yes, we have already understood that Chazelle loves jazz (his previous film was Whiplash); I suspect that his secret purpose was implanting that musical style into our heads, in which it will remain for many days after leaving the cinema.