Love every bit

Rating: 9/10 (29 January 2017)

"City of stars are you shining just for me?"
Mia, an aspiring actress, serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions and Sebastian, a jazz musician, scrapes by playing cocktail party gigs in dingy bars, but as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.
Before I dive into the film I'd like to say that I stick to my "no spoiler" style and that this is a really biased review, taking into account that my partner and I are both actors dreaming and planning to move to the "City of Stars", therefore you can guess how I felt about "La La Land".
"La La Land" mixes perfectly the nostalgia of the golden age of Hollywood musicals with an old story, wannabe artist move to Los Angeles thinking she is going to make it, dreams crush, has to work doing something she is not passionate about.
This could have led us nowhere but this is where Damien Chazelle succeeds, he knows exactly what he is talking about, if you've seen "Whiplash" you get an idea of where this guy is coming from, some of his themes are repeated here: jazz, perfection, dreams about succeeding on what you love, difficult choices: love or giving your 100% to what you love.
Mia and Seb ( Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling) are two unique creatures lucky enough to find each other, two dreamers, two of a kind that we recognize. I can't think of any other actors that could have done this job better than Gosling and Stone, both have this quality that makes us believe whatever the do, they're not acting, they're living and breathing these characters, their chemistry is great, it looks like if one is about to fall the other is ready for the rescue and we want them so badly to love each other and make us dream with them.
The score is a triumph , Justin Hurwitz you're a fantastic composer, every song is moving and heartfelt which is very rare these days, where everything feels too much in your face, the music becomes another character in the film, taking us into a journey where we feel as the characters, hopeful, passionate, discourage but always willing to carry on with the show.
And all that jazz I'm devoted to jazz since I was a child and I saw "The Talent of Mr. Ripley", since then I've been obsessed by it and as Seb, I don't understand people who don't like it. Jazz contributes on creating rhythm , is like life, improvise, stop, wait, carry on, listen, play solo, go with the band, and this is how "La La Land" feels.
Last but not least, J. K. Simmons, is there anything not to love about this man? Doesn't matter how much on screen time he gets, he is pure magic and has a wonderful moment that I won't spoilt but it really puts a smile on your face.
As I said, this review is totally biased, I still feel that the fourteen Oscar nominations are well deserved and this a must watch for 2017 and one of the best musicals I've seen in ages. Thank you Mr. Chazelle, I thought people didn't make movies like this these days.
"Here's to the ones who dream"