La La Land is a 2016 movie directed by Damien Chazelle and starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. The film follows two young artists who must choose between their respective careers or being with the other person. This movie is truly unique and incredible, and it really doesn’t get enough attention as it should.
La La Land follows Sebastian and Mia. Sebastian is a jazz pianist who wishes to start his own jazz club and bring classic jazz music back to Los Angeles. Mia is an actress who wishes to make it big, but is consistently overlooked for whichever role she auditions in. The two of them fall in love and end up being a couple. However, over time, their respective dreams take hold of their lives and deprive them of each other. Although this is technically romance film, it’s certainly not a happy one, as the ending is incredibly sad and bittersweet.
In addition to being a romance film however, La La Land also incorporates elements from broadway musicals, and often the cast will break into a song and dance routine in the middle of a traffic jam. The music in this movie is simply amazing. Almost every track is memorable, catchy, and sometimes even beautiful. In addition to the music, the setting of L.A. is wonderful. This movie makes me want to move to California, because La La Land portrays it as being magical vibrant. The setting perfectly compliments the music, even the slower more somber tracks such as “City of Stars.”
There were a couple of annoying things I found in La La Land. For one, Ryan Gosling’s voice. I think Ryan Gosling is a really great and underrated actor. He’s excellent in this. However, his voice I found irritating. It almost sounds too quiet or tired. Another thing is that despite Mia and Sebastian’s relationship feeling very real as a whole due to some great chemistry between the leads, the fight scene they have feels really unnatural. First off, it’s never really been shown that there was any tension in the relationship. Yes, Sebastian was touring, but Mia was shown missing him, not resenting him. And also, the fight seems to come out of nowhere, and escalate from 0-100 in a second. Overall it just doesn’t feel natural and stands out considering the rest of their relationship was so well done.
I love La La Land. It’s a magical and unique film. It’s really sad that the main reason people remember this film is because of that fiasco at the Oscars a couple of years ago. La La Land deserves your attention and needs to be watched by more people.