Review – La La Land
Since January, I championed Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation as the very best movie of 2016. I saw fourteen movies before The Birth of a Nation and over 100 after and it was still the very best movie I had seen all year, and by good margin. I knew the film was in for a tough battle to stay at number one during Oscar season, due to the amount of high profile films coming out from some of my favorite directors. And so far, it had survived.
That was until I saw La La Land, director Damien Chazelle’s follow-up to his 2014 smash, Whiplash. La La Land is everything you want in a movie. It is a magical, whimsical, expertly crafted musical with amazing performances and songs.
La La Land is a musical love story about an aspiring actress named Mia (Emma Stone) and a jazz pianist named Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and how they fall in love with each while also trying to make it big in present day Hollywood.
This marks the third time Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone have worked together, following Crazy Stupid Love (2011) and Gangster Squad (2013). With each movie, the two get better and better, working in perfect unison to bring out the best in one another. Both actors are at their absolute best in this movie. Emma Stone gives one of the best, if not the best, female performances of 2016. Her bright-eyed, naive Mia is a modernized version of the classic dreamer who is looking to conquer her dream, no matter the obstacles. Stone has a marvelous voice that really shines in her closing number, “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)”, which is performed with enormous heart and passion. Chalk this one up as an Oscar favorite come February.
Ryan Gosling gives his second great performance of 2016 as the calm, cool Sebastian. Sebastian has done the Hollywood grind for a long time and knows that in order to survive, you might have to take a job or two you aren’t proud of. But when he meets Mia, everything changes. Gosling brings all of his charm and wit to the performance, while also showing us how incredibly and obnoxiously talented he is by singing, playing piano, and tap dancing. He is truly remarkable.
The way La La Land looks and feels, you would think director Damien Chazelle had been making movies for decades. But, you’d be wrong. This marks the 31 year old’s third feature and it is by far his most accomplished. He truly understands the musical genre and knows his film history. This feels like a Gene Kelley film pulled straight from the 1950’s, yet, its modern themes and messages about love and the cutthroat industry that is Hollywood add a new layer never seen in these movies. The show-stopping ending with leave you wanting more and is the right amount of ambiguous to have you talking and thinking long after the credits are finished.
The movie is a visual stunner. From the opening, uncut song and dance number “Another Day in the Sun”, you know you are in for a treat. This is a bright, imaginative, marvelous film featuring some of the jaw-dropping sequences, like the zero gravity waltz or the tap dancing “A Lovely Night”. Chazelle brilliantly keeps the takes long and uncut, making each one more and more impressive.
Movies as good as La La Land don’t come around too often. This is a movie that will flesh out all of your emotions. It’ll make you laugh, cry, smile, and even make you a little angry. It is masterfully crafted in every way and brilliantly acted by the two leads. We still have a few weeks left in the year, but I doubt I will see a movie as perfect as La La Land. This is the best movie of 2016.
MY RATING – 4/4
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