Wonderful Movie-going Experience

Rating: 8/10 (15 January 2017)

I went to see La La Land with my girlfriend last night in a packed-out screen, mostly filled with young couples. I was actually looking forward to this film, although admittedly with some trepidation as I don't really tend to trust the general movie going public's opinion on what is good or not.
Let me first of all say, this is a fantastic film. It's a wonderful modern take on the classic Hollywood musicals of the past. The acting, cinematography, choreography, and wardrobe are all on point and likely to be some of the best you will see this year and beyond. The songs are not particularly memorable however.
In brief, Emma Stone plays Mia, an aspiring actress currently working as a barista on the Warner Bros. lot, and Ryan Gosling plays Sebastian, a jazz aficionado who drives 5 miles out of the way for a coffee just to be near a jazz club. They each have their dreams and aspirations for the future, but are currently unhappy with their lot in life. After falling for each other, she helps him believe in staying true to his dreams whilst he helps reinforce her passion for acting, but the road is never as easy in real life as it is in the schmaltzy musicals of yesteryear and the dreams they carefully work to maintain threaten to tear them apart.
This in particular is what the movie does superbly. While the plot could be considered as formulaic (you will see things coming before they happen on screen), in classic musicals like Singin' In The Rain (1952) and Mary Poppins (1964), there is always a happy ending. La La Land subverts this, but not in the way you would expect, and I personally thought this was a very clever and sweet way to end the film.
The performances are uniformly brilliant. Gosling does an excellent job but Emma Stone in particular, wow. She really blew me away in this film and I would not be in the least bit surprised if she picks up the Best Actress gong at the Academy Awards as it would be fully deserved. In the beginning, she goes to an audition which we see her practicing for in her car at the start of the film and is roundly ignored. Her soliloquy and performance in this audition and is one of the most powerful and realistic pieces of acting I have seen in many years, more clever in the fact that she is acting while acting (very meta).
This movie isn't for everyone, and I would imagine that some will detest it as it is quite slow moving, the songs aren't catchy (and there's not really a lot of them) and as previously mentioned, the plot is formulaic. There was also quite a few confused looking faces in the audience at my screening in the end which genuinely made me laugh my ass off as they didn't "get it" (they were pretty young so it's forgivable), but I personally found it endearing, a joy to watch and I'm looking forward to seeing it again.