La La Land is a new age musical about the life of an aspiring actress and jazz musician who fall in love while trying to follow their dreams.

Rating: 7/10 (28 September 2017)

Damien Chazelle's La La Land is a new age musical with many throwbacks to the classic films by Gene Kelly. The ending leaves the audience feeling content and sad at the same time for both the characters and allows for the viewer to interpret what it means to be happy, to do something you love or be with someone you love. The movies overall feeling is joyful yet grounded in reality; the speed was fast paced but slacks a bit in the middle felling like it was dragging on. The movie has many references to classical musicals which should provide great entertainment for anyone familiar with the films by Gene Kelly. The camera movement and use of colors and music to illustrate emotion was nothing short of stellar. For example, in the end of the movie Sebastian is bathed in yellow light while Mia's face is covered in a blue lighting while the background was a dark green showed that for them to fit into the world they needed to change the path they were on, because together they both made the color green and made their way into the world but apart from each other. Another simple thing that illustrated change in character was the 360-degree spin around Mia during her successful audition showing her divergence from the path she was already on. The music also played a key part during Mia's revelation of what her life could have been with Sebastian playing the same tune that they both met. Chazelle's commitment to classical filming techniques truly made this movie a joy to watch that evoked far more emotion than any other film of that year. The twist at the end really gives a certain tone to the movie that the world isn't a fairy tale and you need to sacrifice other parts of your life to succeed in another.