Huge waste of talent and money

Rating: 3/10 (6 May 2017)

Set in a perpetually sunny and warm Los Angeles, LA LA LAND offers the spectacle of two wannabes longing for success and originality. Director/writer Damien Chazelle has deliberately cast his film with stars who can't sing or dance, and, in Gosling's case, can't act, to explore the parallels between jazz and film stardom, without gaining any particular insights along the way. As far as its credentials as a musical go, MOULIN ROUGE, NEW YORK, NEW YORK, and "Once More With Feeling" from BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER are all vastly superior fore-runners in the categories of music and writing; where this film excels and wins the race is in its soaring camera work and flawless combination of live action and CGI. I really couldn't tell, even on the big screen, what was real and what was fake. Chazelle wastes absolutely no time developing characters, backstory, or actual relationship building as he delves into the usual dynamics of boy-meets-girl. The innovation comes when he rewinds the film and shows the same story from the other perspective. This is hardly new, but it's beautifully and excitingly done. Gosling may be past his prime, but he's still semi-attractive, while Emma Stone is a revelation as a woman battling insecurity in a looks-based business that creates insecurity by its very nature. As long as the characters are struggling for success by trying to imitate their role models, they flounder. It's only when they strive for authenticity that their lives take off, and the resolution of the film doesn't shy away from the inevitable consequences of success, either. Go, but be prepared to hate the jazz, which is deliberately unappealing and ugly.