La La Land: Film Review

Sebastian is a jazz musician who wants to open a jazz club but won’t make compromises. He scrapes by hoping someone will love jazz as much as he does. Mia is a barista and aspiring actress. She goes to audition after audition but can’t seem to get anywhere. When they meet they fall for each other.

It was a chance meeting, a traffic jam that leads to Mia, Emma Stone, and Sebastian, Ryan Gosling, to fall for each other. La La Land follows their romance and how following your dreams can be the hardest thing you do. Sometimes it can even change everything.

La La Land is interesting because it is filmed like a classic Hollywood film but takes place in modern times. There are references to old films, like Singing in the Rain and Casablanca, while being about a modern romance. While it is a musical, they don’t sing a lot. Most of the music is because Sebastian is a musician. La La Land is great even if you don’t like musicals.

The classic film references are rampant. Mia even gives a tour of the WB back lot and points out sets to Sebastian. But lovers of classic films will notice things that others may not. During the dance scene at sunset, Mia and Sebastian dance like Rogers and Astaire. The movie really is a love letter to classic films that people know and love.

The dancing and singing is great though. The opening dance scene seems a little out of place at first but it all comes together in the end. That opening scene took a lot to film and you can tell when watching it. The dancers had to dance on cars on a freeway in over 100-degree weather for days. And that isn’t the only song number that took a lot of effort to film.

La La Land tied with Titanic for the most Oscar nominations with 14 nominations. They include Best Director, Best Actor and Actress and Best Picture. While La La Land is great the acting was just okay. Stone and Gosling do have their moments but compared to other actors that could have been nominates, La La Land falls short. It is great but the hype may have gotten the best of it.

La La Land goes back and forth between Mia and Sebastian’s point of view a few times. At the beginning we flip between Mia’s view of the traffic jam and then to Sebastian’s after they first meet. It is interesting to see their back-story that way. It flips again at the end and really helps push the message that life takes interesting turns and to just enjoy it.

Overall, La La Land is pretty good. The music and dancing is entertaining and the story, while long and slow in parts, is good. The acting is great but not as good as people might expect. Be prepared for a long movie that drags for a while but all in all La La Land is a good time.

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