La La Land

There are probably way over one hundred films that will have come out this year and seeing something like this makes me appreciate each gem that appears. This musical is a stunning portrayal of two struggling artists’ lives done by two iconic millennial actors, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. Having just seen Stone in Birdman and Gosling in The Big Short, which I have seen multiple times and is the best film of 2015 in my opinion, I was in no doubt that both of them would deliver substantial performances.

This truly beautiful musical event explores the contemporary Hollywood life of actors trying to get their start and musicians trying to share their gift. The huge numbers that were amazingly choreographed took the screen with their energy which made it seem as if one was actually at a New York theater. The opening does wonders with its passing of cars in traffic while it listens to each vehicle’s music that then soon leads to the dancing of dozens of people over a highway.

The little Hollywood stereotypes were definitely played upon well and presented themselves like when a woman asks if a pastry is gluten-free or not. This tiny scene brought to light the concept of the privileged being allowed to be gluten-free which had been in my head for a long time. The contrast between the girl, Mia, and the already famed actresses who walk into the café she works in is noticeable from the start.
The tough facets of auditioning are exploited here in an ingenious way by Director Damien Chazelle. The really emotional scenes being run through when one is suddenly rudely interrupted in a casting call and the attention to the phone by the casting director were solidly great aspects displayed. The music was riveting with its melancholy, slow, and dreamy like composition.

This is a type of film that could very easily make its way into critics’ top five lists for the year of 2016. Ryan Gosling certainly overachieved and impressed the audience with his well learned piano pieces that were performed with seemingly great ease.

The story of these two young people who just fall completely in love with each other in a romantic style setting of Hollywood was touching. Musicals may be seen as too corny and too childlike. That generalized fallacy does not apply here like in many other places where musicals grab your heart with highly relatable stories that explore the lives of diverse people. This was an excellent and essential experience to have.
(Review by Wyatt Head)