Robin Solsjö Höglund’s review published on Letterboxd:
Here is the 2016 winner of Best Pictu...wait, I have just been informed that it was in fact Moonlight.
A modern movie musical in the style of the old 1950's ones, set in Los Angeles, the town of dreamers.
One star for photography and one for production design. I didn't have to look at this film long to notice that they were both pretty exceptional. But I have to be honest, this just didn't do much for me. It simply didn't hook me in. Not the music, not the performances, and I can't really relate to living in L.A. either. I wasn't really raised on classic musicals (I've seen just a few though). Maybe that doesn't exactly matter, but I kind of feel like that's the crowd the film is going for - people who love traditional musical filmmaking in the style of Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. This is essentially that just transposed into modern day Los Angeles.
I think music is really the key element to a musical. If the music hooks you in you can forgive a lot of other things, but the music in this just wasn't really my cup of tea. I wouldn't go so far as to call it pretentious, I just think I'm immune to it for lack of a better word, it just bounces right off. Not for lack of effort. I love Whiplash, but this is quite simply a miss for me, and too bad, because it was a gorgeous film to look at while it lasted.
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