(From IMDb.com)
Director and writer Damien Chazelle wastes not one moment to let everybody know La La Land is going to bring everybody back to the days when Hollywood musicals were big, bold and bright.
The first five or so of his 128 minutes of this beautifully shot and choreographed picture are spent on an L.A. Freeway, traffic stopped for a song-and-dance routine that builds slowly to a our first encounter between Sebastian and Mia. The singing-and-dancing is seamless, done in one camera shot, a magical moment of merriment where all the marks are hit and the potential of the movie seems limitless. The brush-up between the man and woman is much less, a beeped-horn and raised fingers of derision, a fleeting moment of derision when the traffic gets going and she doesn’t drive away fast enough to suit him in the car behind her.
Of course, stars Ryan Goslng and Emma Stone will meet soon enough again, he playing piano in one last flourish against the wishes of is craggy boss to earn his walking papers in a restaurant dining room as she walks in the door, and then brushing past her hello.
And then again at an outdoor party, when he’s playing cheesy 80s retro music with the band and she’s giving him guff for it before they leave together for some hate-love relationship-starting.
At the heart, he’s a jazz man trying to prop up a dying genre by buying a club all his own and she’s an aspiring actress and writer taking auditions while pouring coffee at a studio cafe while they break into song and dance in the style of Fred and Ginger. That would be Astaire and Rogers, really, as these two sing pretty well and dance even better. The plot thickens as they fall pretty hard. And then life, as it often does, gets in the way for both of them.
A match made in Hollywood. (From IMDb.com)
Individually, Gosling and Stone shine in these roles like the stars they’ve come to be. He’s intense in his love for the music, and she’s quite believable reading her lines in those excruciating audition scenes and crafting her own one-woman show.
And the plot is full of believable hooks, with their tussles, individually and with each other, about work commitments and personal growth.
The passion chemistry never quite seems to sizzle between Gosling and Stone, though, not even when they’re dancing among the stars in a planetarium scene in which Chazelle pulls out all stops and suspends reality. Even in their most intimate of times, to me they seem to be more comfortable in the friend zone.
The nearly full crowd for an 8 p.m. Christmas Eve show in Regal Cinemas’ mid-size theater at Syracuse mega shopping, dining and entertainment complex Destiny USA bought it all, obviously, cheering at the Chazelle’s very dramatic finish.
What’s your favorite musical, and why? What’s your favorite Ryan Gosling movie, and why? What’s your favorite Emma Stone movie, and why?
Mark Bialczak 
My favorite musical(s) would be between Singin’ In the Rain and The Sound of Music, but I think I’m going to have to add La La Land to that list. Ryan Gosling is great in Half Nelson and The Big Short, so those are two of my favorite films of his. I also love him in The Nice Guys, because I think he plays witty characters extremely well. As far as Emma Stone’s films, The Help is one of my favorites. She’s just so good in it.
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Good movies all on your list, Catherine. So nice to have you here pitching in with great taste. 🙂
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I saw this yesterday, I enjoyed it except for the ending, though when I saw beforehand that it was same director of whiplash, I somewhat expected to not have the cliche ending, so it never came as a surprise. Though I would have preferred the cliche uplifting ending because isn’t that why us old romantics watch movies anyway especially romantic musical ones, because we want the happy ever after, not the ‘I married boring forever and ever amen’. Rant over!
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Perfect rant, Vonita. And this ending was sort of misty-eyed in its own way, I’d say. Way more than ‘Whiplash,’ that’s for sure.
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Umm.. the Sound of Music… Duh! 😀
As far as Ryan Gosling movies, I really like The Believer. It’s super dark, but Gosling’s so good in it. Least favorite is definitely The Notebook. Not that he did a bad job acting. I just hate that movie; I mean, it hinges on a giant plot hole. (Alzheimer’s patients rarely have trouble remembering their past; it’s daily activities they have trouble with.) And also, why would she choose the poor guy with anger issues over the nice guy who has money? I ain’t no gold digger, but if I have the choice, I’m going with the one who’s emotionally stable. I’m not going with passion over reason…. I guess that’s why I’m not a best selling romance novelist…
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Sound (of Music) reasoning all around, Miriam. You have good movie taste, I see.
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Can’t wait to see this one. Singing In the Rain is my very favorite musical. Incredible film.
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Yes, that’s indeed a classic, Apple Pie! And I hope you love this one, too.
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I’m there, very soon. My favorite musical is “Singin’ in the Rain.”
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I hope you like this one as well, Ann.
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i cannot wait to see this! my favorite musical is ‘once.’
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Have fun at this one. Maybe even more than Once, Beth?
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I love Once too. My dad’s a musician, and although I don’t think he really liked the way Glen Hansard sings, he really liked the concept. It is a simple, genuine story supplemented by music. (We keep trying to get him to write a script for a movie, in which he can showcase his tunes.)
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It would be awesome to get your dad to write a script, Miriam. My dad was a drummer. He didn’t write. That was passed to me. No scripts. (Yet?)
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I will keep pestering him!
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Also, what kind of music did your dad play?
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My dad played in a wedding reception band, specialty polka music.
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