Review 400: La La Land

La La Land is a beautifully made, tastefully told, gorgeously filmed musical film, a magnificent love letter to old Hollywood

Amongst the bustling, sunny, film and music fueled, party driven, nostalgic atmosphere of modern LA, Mia Dolan (Emma Stone) an aspiring actress who serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions and Sebastian Wilder (Ryan Gosling) a dedicated but struggling musician who scrapes by playing cocktail piano gigs in dingy bars are drawn together by their common desire to do what they love. But as success begins to catch on, they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their of their love affair and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threat to rip them apart.

In a lot of ways La La Land is very much like an old 1930's MGM musical, extravagant, loads of lively, energy-filled musical numbers, two big stars and despite being made on a low budget, it looks very well made.

I really liked the setting of the movie, it has a sense of ambiguity to it, on the outside it looks very much set in modern times but it's atmosphere harkens back to the days of Old/Classic Hollywood when the MGM musicals ruled the movie world, to the days of Judy Garland and Gene Kelly.
So the film is very much set in modern times but it's infused with a sense of nostalgia for the that period of time.
What La La Land does very well thematically and stylistically is show the contrast between reality and dreams. What you have and what you want. The musical numbers are very set in an idealised world where nothing can possibly go wrong.
La La Land shows us that there are two types of dreams: Ambitions and Wishes. Writer/Director Damien Chazelle focuses the majority of the film on the ambitions of Mia and Sebastian who are willing to devote everything they have to said ambitions in the hope that they can achieve success. They work and overcome adversities, jump the hurdles and come one step closer to achieving those dreams.
Chazelle takes an unusually optimistic approach to looking at ambitions but even if its not possible for everyone ambitions are possible to achieve.
What isn't possible to achieve are wishes: Hopes for the impossible to come true and the past to change.

As Sebastian and Mia slowly learn over the course of the film, Sacrifice is a key component towards making ones dream a reality: If he wants to succeed and play the music he wants in the long run, Sebastian needs to use his musical talents to make music that he's isn't all that passionate about.
Meanwhile, Mia is in a position where she doesn't seem to be doing anything substantial to stand out. Instead, she just exists.
Eventually they have to sacrifice they're relationship to achieve their dreams, but without one and another, they're dreams feel incomplete.

Watching this film I was reminded somewhat of Damien Chazelle's Whiplash which at first may seem like an odd comparison but narratively they're both similar as they're about following your dreams. Both Mia and Sebastian want different things in the entertainment industry, Mia is an aspiring actress and Sebastian is a passionate but struggling Jazz musician but because of their related interests and due to the fact that they're both aspiring in their respective fields they bond with each other and share in each others passions and support each however when they're relationship is unfortunately what gets in the way of pursuing their passions and prevents them from fulfilling their dreams. We believe their relationship because Chazelle takes the time to develop their romance and at no point does it feel rushed or contrived and as a result we care about these two aspiring entertainers and want they're them to make their dreams come true but at the same time we want their relationship to work out in the end.

Damien Chazelle's direction is elegant, giving the film an almost dream-like quality with beautiful wide shots to frame and capture the  the scenery is breathing, the cinematography is gorgeous and captures the modern and nostalgic feel of LA, the locations are simply gorgeous, the costumes are magnifique, the score by Justin Hurwitz is beautiful, the songs by Hurwitz, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul are superbly catchy, the production design is exquisite, the props are excellently crafted, the make up is rich and beautifully detailed.

The acting is tremendous, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are fabulous in their roles.
Mia and Sebastian are stuck with what they have. But they also dream.
Their lives are dominated by thinking about and hoping that their dreams will come true. Yet they don't really do much to make their dreams reality. Mia goes to as many auditions as humanly possible but she's just one of the many faceless in a sea of aspiring actresses.
On the other hand, Sebastian does as many gigs as he can trying to make enough money so that he can pursue his dream of opening a jazz club. But at the same time, he's unwilling to sacrifice anything  to get that dream.

Rosemarie DeWitt, J. K. Simmons and Finn Wittrock round out the small cast in but pivitol roles

La La Land is a fabulous dream, 5/5.

The Anonymous Critic.