Here's to the ones who dream

Rating: 9/10 (21 January 2017)

Are you a rusher or are you a dragger? Writer/ Director Damien Chazelle had us all asking this question after he released the spectacular movie that is Whiplash. Now off the back of an amazing directorial debut and having just co wrote one of the best films of 2016 (10 Cloverfield Lane), Chazelle is back with his second film and boy is he back. La La Land is a beautiful film about falling in love and chasing a dream, but is also about the difficulties that come with both.
Chazelle blows us away with the films opening scene. The opening highway gridlock number is perfectly directed by Chazelle; singing, dancing, cycling, parkour, it's all there and is all seamlessly choreographed by Mandy Moore in a scene that is shot as if done in one take (I am not certain if it is). The scene perfectly sets the tone for the films first act, which is that of a sophisticated homage to Hollywood's golden age of entertainment.
The first act introduces us to our two protagonists and their dreams. Mia is a woman trying to make it as an actress in Hollywood and is played wonderfully by Emma Stone, and Sebastian is a struggling musician aspiring to resurrect Jazz music and is played phenomenally by Ryan Gosling. The two leads work fantastically well together and their on screen chemistry is the best I've seen since Her. Personally I got behind Sebastian and his dream more than I did with Mia and I believe that is Chazelles intention as evident in the films ending. But I'll come back to that later. Sebastian's dream was a small thing and is achievable and realistic. Paired with Goslings passionate performance I really felt his love for the music and so was drawn to him. The reason I didn't connect with Mia was because her dream is cliché, although her reason behind it is one that I understood, it's still a very vague and cliché dream and so I did not connect with Mia. But as I said this is Chazelle's aim and due to this the films ending is so much more emotional.
After the film pays tribute to Hollywood's golden age and establishes our characters, their relationship and their dreams. The second act brings us back down to a more sober reality. Now that we have come attached to these characters we experience the roller coaster ride that is their relationship and their dream chasing. It's up and it's down, it's hopeful and it's hopeless, it's heartfelt and heartbreaking. What was once a tale of optimism, now begins to question itself, the characters question themselves and the dream and relationship conflict each other. The stand out scene has to be the dinner table argument. A well written and acted scene that has been built up to rather subliminally by Chazelle, for example I read Sebastian playing piano on the left side of the stage (from our perspective) as him not enjoying the music he's playing.
The third act brings back some of that nostalgic hope from the first act before building to it's bitter sweet ending. After endorsing in these characters hopes, dreams and relationship we now wait eagerly to know how it ends for Seb and Mia. Chazelle both writes and directs possibly the most perfect ending for the film imaginable. The 'how it could have been' sequence is mesmerizingly saddening as classic Hollywood set pieces and dance numbers reemerged all the while we are feeling Sebastian's regret, and with my connection to him this makes the sequence all the more emotional when they exchange that one final look.
Overall, La La Land is beautiful homage to the golden age of Hollywood the then fittingly becomes a sobering reality until building to it's perfectly bittersweet ending. Wonderfully acted by Stone and Gosling and Fantastically written and directed by Damien Chazelle. Mandy Moore should also be praised for the films choreography and Justin Hurwitz for his beautiful score that ironically seems to have achieved what Sebastian wanted. La La Land is a near faultless movie, that is personally a close second to Whiplash, but is likely to grant Chazelle what he deserves and that is the Oscar gold.