2016 romantic musical written and directed by Amien Chazelle.
Despite her talent, Mia Dolan always fails in the competitive world of Los Angeles auditions, but she never loses her dream of being an actress. Sebastian Wilder, a brilliant pianist, has problems paying the rent while dreaming of opening his own jazz club. Although no one else believes in them, they don’t lose hope and think that their success is only a matter of time, so when Mia and Sebastian finally talk, they find something that unites them: the desire to realize their dreams.
Before talking about what I think of the film, I must say that I am not a fan of musicals, because although I like how the choreography, dances and music can combine wonderfully, the idea of characters directly expressing their emotions through dancing and singing does not seem so attractive to me. This, of course, is just a personal bias and not something inherently negative. Having said that, the film is excellent.
La La Land not only has the classic scenes of musicals where reality is suspended, but it has musical moments that include diegetic music, which express the feelings and emotions of its characters, becoming genuine dramatic moments. Something that Amien Chazelle had previously done in the wonderful Whiplash, but with other connotations. In fact, these two films have some similarities.
The film has beautiful cinematography by Linus Sandgren, the costumes are fantastic, the images are intensely accompanied by the music of Justin Hurwitz, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling have good chemistry and perform very well individually, the musical moments and choreography are also very well executed, and the complementary participation of John Legend is so cool.
The film was nominated for thirteen Academy Awards of which it won six; Best Director, Best Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Original Song and Best Production Design.
La La Land is about a couple with ambitious dreams, the romance of its characters is not the result of an impetuous need to stay irrationally together, but of the mutual support to realize their individual dreams, and the effect that the pursuit of dreams has on their relationship.
The story just keeps getting better and better as its intense finale approaches, making the two hours and eight minutes a great show.
If you saw the movie, let me know your opinion and if you haven’t seen it yet, let me know if you are interested in seeing it or if you prefer to see something different.
A romantic drama directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
A horror musical based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid.
All the images in the post have been partially or totally modified by me. The original material was obtained from the film.