Pretentious nonsense

Rating: 4/10 (7 January 2017)

I'll call it right now. 'La La Land' will win Best Picture at the Academy Awards, and for no other reason than the fact that the Academy loves a film about the industry. If there's a film based around movies in anyway amongst the nominees list, put your money on it to win. Does it deserve the award? No, there were many superior films released in 2016.
Hollywood seems to be obsessed with Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone as a couple. This is their third film appearance together and for my liking they just get worse every time. Comparing the chemistry for example to Gosling and Rachel McAdams in 'The Notebook', they are worlds apart. Stone is a very good actress as far as emotional range goes, but she can't pull off the likable tag very well.
I really enjoyed Damien Chazelle's previous film 'Whiplash'. In a lot of ways they are very similar films, but in the more important ways they are worlds apart. The biggest difference is the modesty that 'Whiplash' achieved. It had great characters, yet it acted like it didn't know it. 'La La Land' has very average, even poor occasionally, characters yet acts like they're God's gift to cinema.
I was really disappointed coming out of 'La La Land'. Even though I knew it wasn't my type of film ideally, I was willing to give it a chance and thought it might surprise me due to my low expectations. On the contrary though, it managed to fall below my expectations. My advice would be don't be fooled by the reviews and probable Oscar nominations. There's nothing to see here.