My Favorite Musical

Rating: 10/10 (16 January 2017)

To start off, let it be known that I am not a huge musical guy. I can enjoy them, I have just found it hard to take them seriously and be able to look past the awkwardness. But La La Land blew me away.
Damien Chazelle has dazzled me before with his Oscar-worthy "Whiplash" and he has done it again. The music in this musical kept me interested, wanting more, anxious to hear the next. Most musicals, I can't wait for the songs to be over to hear the dialogue. Each piece had character, great choreography. Something else that helps is my love of jazz music, and I found most pieces to be "jazzy", so that earned itself some brownie points.
The actor/actress performances really surprised me. When I saw Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling starring together in a musical, I was somewhat skeptical. I knew both were wonderful, true professionals at their crafts, I just seemed to question the fact they would be doing this role together. They nailed it. Their dialogue between one another really made this musical seem "realistic", if you will, for me. And that went a long way in my view of this film.
As a whole, this film is such a beautiful thing. It's colorful, fun, comedic, pretty, charismatic. The music flows with the feel and the emotions of each scene of the movie to a T and I enjoy every track.
Now... The Ending...
So. Effing. Genius.
Chazelle didn't give us the ending we wanted, and we all knew exactly what we wanted. The typical love story/musical ending, and it's not what we got. But he didn't just stop there. He gave us an alternate ending, in the middle of the actual ending, and I loved it. He gave us a taste of what could have been, what we all wanted to happen so bad, but then he brought us back to reality. It crushed me, absolutely crushed me, but I loved it so so much. I wanted them to be together, but as I stated before, that wouldn't be quite "realistic" enough for me.
Sometimes, the people we run into may seem perfect, just what we need. And that's exactly what they are. But as this film shows us, sometimes we may need those people to be temporary, so we can find what we need permanently.
Bravo, Chazelle.
9/10