Andrew Franklin’s review published on Letterboxd:
So it came down to this and Rogue One, and I decided to see Rogue One another day. Way. Worth. It.
La La Land is the kind of movie other movies want to grow up to be. From the first shot (a five-minute tracking shot that follows dozens of people singing and dancing in bumper-to-bumper traffic on an LA freeway), the juxtaposition between the 1940s/1950s style and the 2010s setting is obvious, and it couldn't have worked better. Who knew classic Hollywood nostalgia would be such a perfect fit for the starving artist mentality of 2016 California? Damien Chazelle, apparently.
Chazelle sticks with his jazz roots with Ryan Gosling's Sebastian, a jazz pianist who wants to keep the genre alive despite its declining popularity, which parallels Chazelle's efforts in this film to keep the mid-20th century musical alive. Sebastian falls in love with Emma Stone's Mia, a barista and aspiring actress, and we go on an emotional rollercoaster as we follow their unconventional love story.
It's difficult NOT to compare this to Chazelle's previous film, and my favorite film of 2014, Whiplash. While I probably prefer that film for its screenplay and acting, this is undoubtedly the better *made* film (which isn't to say that its screenplay and acting aren't also excellent). And while the music is crucial to Whiplash, here it's delivered in a low key way that serves only to strengthen the story, not music for music's sake as we see in many musicals.
It's certainly not for everyone, but this is crack cocaine for anyone who grew up on 40s/50s cinema. So, I'll close with this dialogue from the film itself:
Mia: "It's awfully nostalgic."
Sebastian: "That's the point!"
Mia: "But what if they don't get it? What if people don't like it?"
Sebastian: "Fuck 'em!"
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