'This is the dream! It's conflict and it's compromise, and it's very, very exciting!'

Rating: 8/10 (4 February 2017)

Rhode Island born Damien Chazelle graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Visual and Environmental Studies. He has captured the attention of audiences throughout the country with is own story which he also directed – LA LA LAND – and likely will become a Hollywood staple. Perhaps the chaotic mess in which we find ourselves, daily sinking into a dark hole created by our change in political face, is the reason this little slight escape piece is finding such favor. Or maybe we just want to remember the happy ever after ending to dreams that were abundant in early musical films that makes this film the talk of the Oscars and making so much money.
The film is about dreams - their illusions, consequences and rewards. Mia (Emma Stone), an aspiring actress, serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), 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.
Apart from Stone and Gosling dancing and singing their way through the endless colorscapes of Los Angeles and Hollywood, there are few other actors involved – JK Simmons, Damon Gupton, John Legend, Tom Everett Scott, and others – to make the plot have any broad strokes. But it is what it is – and it is being applauded as the probable best picture of the year. Go figure.