Just like a piece of nostalgic memorabilia, La La Land provides a warm feeling but can never escape the fact that it is only an imitation. As a love letter to old Hollywood and the heyday of musicals, La La Land is a winning success but, unlike the musicals it imitates, there's no sense that it will remain a timeless classic. It's a whimsical and old school film that has obvious appeal to film fans, critics and creators as well as anyone who likes a good musical but it's so alike the earlier classics that it shares many of their flaws as well as their brilliance.

The clear highlight of La La Land's film-making is the sheer charm and likability of every character and scene. It's an easy watch and never convoluted. All the dance numbers are a sheer joy and it'd be hard to watch La La Land and not crack a smile more than a few times. On a visual level, the film is a rich treat as Chazelle captures dreams and mood with his bright colour scheme subdued with moody lighting. The performances from both leads are also excellently sincere and low key, even with the large extravagant set pieces.

However, the film's flaws are plentiful. Whenever there's not a musical sequence, La La Land falls flat with its actual plot being rather insubstantial and occasionally emotionally lacking. La La Land also suffers from recurring partial predictability because, although the entire story is not totally obvious, every single sequence in isolation goes almost exactly as expected. Even the final shot is predictable from about 5 minutes previous. One big problem is that despite the strength of the music, few songs are that memorable. This is a symptom of both generic song-writing and a lack of emotional weight assigned to them within the film. The flaws of La La Land - sporadic predictability, some bland songs, lack of substance - are endemic of the musical genre but why revive a genre and not improve upon it? The very best musicals (Singin' in the Rain, West Side Story) either manage to avoid such flaws or work in spite of them. By contrast, La La Land succumbs to all the musical tropes and can't escape the grasp of the weakest aspects it embodies.

Nostalgia in film-making is a powerful tool in the modern world but La La Land is so full of nostalgia that it never becomes more than that. We have films being directly mentioned (Rebel Without a Cause, Casablanca), films being visually referenced (Singin' in the Rain, The Red Balloon) and various assorted inspirations (the opening reminded me of parts of Fellini's 8 1/2's opening). These homages and cues dominate the film but to seemingly no purpose. The current climate of dull, lifeless action blockbusters may be problematic but fetishising the golden age of Hollywood is not a better alternative. Good innovations move cinema forward, not producing imitations of what was once innovative. Post-modern takes on the musical genre do exist but La La Land is far from the most successful. Moulin Rouge! used modern pop songs to produce a more unique take on the genre and Buffy the Vampire Slayer's "Once More, with Feeling" was a perfect deconstruction of genre fare like this. Ryan Gosling's character is criticised by another who says "how are you gonna be a revolutionary if you're such a traditionalist?" and this seems like a question Chazelle himself needs to take heed of. There is some differences between La La Land and most musicals - more jokes, less cheese, non-linear storytelling - but these innovations can't make up for the formulaic story, tone and style which overshadows everything else.

Overall, La La Land is a film to enjoy and savour but it's much more likely to make you want to binge all your favourite musicals than actually want to give La La Land a re-watch. It's well made and worth a watch for musical fans but suffers from an over-reliance on outdated modes of storytelling and simply doesn't elevate itself beyond just being a beautiful, if lacking, tribute.

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