OpticPotato’s review published on Letterboxd:
ZFF 2016 3/5
letterboxd.com/opticpotato/list/zff-2016/
Holy shit was this good!
La La Land is the story of an aspiring actress and an aspiring musician who meet in Los Angeles and slowly start to fall in love with each other. Doesn't sound too special, but now the good part comes: It's a musical. Directed by the guy who brought us Whiplash. Starring Emma Stone. And Ryan Gosling.
As soon as this got announced I was extremely hyped - And damn did this movie deliver.
We start with a beautiful choreography on a highway, jump into the main characters cars, auditions, coffee shops, partys, jazz clubs - There are so many things to look at. I could watch this movie without sound and get sucked into it, because the sets are so colorful, so well designed, LA is alive.
The main characters are extremely likeable, both chasing their dreams with passion. Ryan Gosling is hilarious as hell, there's a scene where it's just him standing in front of a keyboard and I couldn't help but laugh. This movie has alot of funny moments in the first hour, which I didn't expect. Especially Gosling, like I said, kills it. After his performance in The Nice Guys he shows his comedic skills again. But also Emma Stone has her funny moments and both of them shine in their moments together. The chemistry is unreal and you can totally believe them falling in love.
But it's not the only thing the movie has. It talks alot aboutt the current state of our media and the consumers, music and movies especially.
Being a musical, it also needs some good songs right? Damn right! The music is amazing, the actors are singing their hearts out, "City of Stars" is still in my head after almost 24 hours, "Audition", Emma Stone's solo number is lovely, "Someone in the crowd" is entertaining as hell with the actors' performances and "A Lovely Night" is perfectly representing what's going on in the scene.
There are actually much less songs than I expected, but I actually like that, they only sing when they need to and when they do, it's a memorable scene.
Talking about memorable scenes: JK Simmons. He doesn't have a big role, it's more like a cameo, but he kills it as always with his scenes.
This is a movie that will get so many nominations in the next months and should get almost as many prizes. It's early to say, but I would call this a contender for Best Picture already, but who am I to say this? The only thing I definetly know is, that I need to watch this again as soon as possible.
