The yin and yang of dreams and reality.

Rating: 10/10 (17 February 2017)

When once-in-a-lifetime love conflicts with lifetime dreams one or both have to give, or so the characters believe. The result rips open hearts and the time-space continuum. Robert Frost wrote: "I shall be telling this with a sigh, Somewhere ages and ages hence." La La Land sings and dances that sigh in high definition.
If you've ever felt the need to sacrifice one passion for another, and you have a heart, this film will leave you in tears. It did me. If not, it won't make sense.
If squashy, squirrelly, fudgy paintings show you reality with chisel preciseness, this film will be a life altering ride. If the impreciseness of oil on canvass annoys you, and you wonder what's the point of brushes when pixels do so well, it'll be a waste of time and money to watch.
If you tolerate, are fascinated by, or even love paradox, and recognize that life is not like Hollywood but it is like Hollywood, and that dissonance is built into the DNA of the Universe, you'll love this film. If your yardstick comes from textbooks that preach 3-act structure, parabolic character arcs and tidy Hollywood endings, this film will annoy the hell out of you.
This dreamlike film about dreaming worked for me. It may or may not work for you.