La La Land is a film that I’ve really been looking forward to seeing this year. Not only does it have my current favourite actress Emma Stone in there, but it also has Ryan Gosling and a few other great cast members that make brief appearances such as J.K. Simmons and John Legend. Another reason to be excited about La La Land is because it comes directed by Damien Chazelle, who film buffs of recent years will remember as the man who brought us 2014’s Whiplash (read review).
I’m going to be honest, I was really excited for this movie, but when I found out it was a musical, I just wasn’t so sure. I don’t particularly mind musicals, but they tend to be not my favourite genre of films to watch. I do feel I have to mention that because I never imagined that I would be heading towards the end of 2016 and possibly having a musical as my number one favourite film for the year.
La La Land is an inspiring love story film about two characters who have really big dreams they want to follow, but as most know, achieving your dreams can be quite difficult. Emma Stone plays Mia who is an aspiring actress trying to make it in Hollywood and Ryan Gosling plays Sebastian who wants to start a jazz club (a proper jazz club). Both have very difficult tasks ahead of them and also must balance their lives together. La La Land is ab very well written and well made film. Coming out of the film is a very emotional but thrilling experience and I loved every moment of it.
The musical aspect of the film is where all the fun is. There’s some happy songs all throughout the run time which are all quite nice and the dancers are all great. There’s also some more emotional pieces thrown in there. What’s also great is that I feel that through most of the songs, the director Damien Chazelle was able to balance tone changes quite well to create a better and stronger emotional impact. Damien Chazelle is only a fairly new director with two really great films already, I guess after seeing La La Land, it’s probably time to add him to my favourite directors list. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.
Most of the focus for the acting is on Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. These two quite good together and have good on screen chemistry. They have worked together before in Gangster Squad (read review) which was interesting film. In here though, La La Land is a higher level of things for them to do. There’s a lot more emotional scenes for them to work with and also a lot of smaller moments for the two to shine. There’s nothing really for me to fault them, they were both completely perfect for their roles. I’m sure once award season comes, these two would be nominated quite a lot and I do hope one of them wins something. Both Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling were excellent in La La Land.
Overall this is my favourite film of the year. I think not since I watched Birdman (read review) did I enjoy a film so much and I can’t wait to watch it again. If there is any movie that you go out and see this month or even this year, you should make sure that the movie you choose to go out and see is La La Land. The film is all about following your dreams, falling in love, music, life and all those things. It was both written and directed by Damien Chazelle and I think he did phenomenal job with La La Land. Both Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling bring their best acting out in this film and the musical pieces are all a lot of fun. La La Land is great! Go and see it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7b5rjAJ3k0
