La La La La La La La La Land means, I love you?

Rating: 8/10 (7 October 2019)

From the director that gave us in my opinion, 2015's Best Picture winner 'Whiplash' comes another movie about music and trying to make it to the big league. What happens when a struggling jazz pianist keeps bumping into a struggling actress around LA? You get La La Land. A musical that heavily borrows from it's predecessors will always render two questions: first, will it be reminiscent of how musicals were done back in the day and second, does it measure up to the classics. The answer to the first one is yes: from the singing, to the dancing, the costumes, the lighting, etc. As for the next question, only time will tell.
The movie's strongest point is Ryan Gosling. He skipped playing the Beast in the live adaptation of Beauty and the Beast for this (coincidentally enough, Emma Watson chose to play Belle instead of playing Emma Stone's character). He's a singer and dancer (thanks to the Mickey Mouse club), and a very good actor. I've also seen 'the Notebook' and in both movies, he serves up that Gosling charm many find irresistible. On the other hand, I remember watching 'Birdman' where I said Emma Stone will go places once she gets more serious roles. Fast forward to today and her first Best Actress Oscar award. She's good when she's on but sometimes her acting can still boil down to 'Easy A' level. Her best scene was the surprise dinner date and her weakest was that improvisation between her and Gosling when the latter was asking her to try auditioning again. As for the direction, it feels the movie wasn't handled as meticulously as 'Whiplash' but minus the minor lapses, the nomination of Damien Chazelle is well-deserved.