10 10 Land

Rating: 10/10 (25 February 2017)

10 10 Land
"What is the 'perfect' film?" and "this can't be a 10/10?" were two questions running through my head. At the end of the film, at the edge of my seat, I confidently found two answers: "This" and "YES". And here's the why:
La La Land is on the surface a love song to the heyday of Hollywood's musicals; a story of struggle to stardom; of romantic and heartbreak; of the juxtaposition of floaty fantasy and harsh reality. The devil in disguise, however, lies NOT solely in the master level of sound design or editing. BUT, the juxtaposition between the characters and the duality and the dynamic between sound and image; between what's going on IN the film versus what's going IN our collective minds.
The film is very aware of its own medium which in turn demonstrates the perfect balance between audio and image. The movie always suggests ideas which in turn emphasizes more than telling. When you must explain a joke, the joke is indeed not funny if you don't get at first. But never once did the editing undermine itself enough to blatantly turn to words to clarify what the story implies or aims for. This is a common mistake predominantly most and every movie makes these days, and they can thank mediocre writing and poor understanding of what the medium is capable of.
Every scene, every cut, every line, every sound cue, has a rightful place in this one hundred and twenty-eight-minute film opus. I am simply soaring in the sky after 10 years of devoted film study, and more than plus 1,000 films legit rated on IMDb, and have no proper way of concluding this review except this anecdote from my friend:
"Now I must go home, watch a crappy movie, so I can get back down to earth!"