So, I took my sister to see this movie and, as soon as Ryan Gosling's first exposition scene starts, she turns to me and says, "so, you like jazz?" I don't know what you'd do with that information, but I'm throwing that out there anyway.
Directed by Damien Chazelle (Whiplash), La La Land stars Emma Stone and the undisputed best celebrity Ryan in the world Ryan Gosling (to everyone except my Mom, anyway) and is a musical revolving around the lives of a struggling actress and a starving musician. And, much like Whiplash, La La Land features a lot - and I mean a lot - of jazz, and it's also pretty great.
I don't know whether or not a huge hype train exists wherever you, my beloved reader, may be right now, but where I am, people are heels over their heads for this movie. All I was hearing about this before going into it was nothing but praise. It was hard to not have high expectations for this movie (especially since I loved Whiplash and am a fan of the director), but I did my best to stay grounded. And, even with my high expectations, it was still very, very good.
First of all, La La Land is a gorgeously shot movie with breathtaking cityscapes and incredible long-take musical numbers. From the opening shot alone, I could tell that I was in for a treat.
The acting and singing were both really great, as well. I was aware that Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling were both incredible and versatile actors (especially since I have this one professor who really just loves talking about Drive), and I was aware that Emma Stone could sing and that she could sing really well (I did see Popstar, after all). She's amazing in the movie but what really blew me out of the water was that Ryan Gosling is actually also just as musically talented.
This man... Just, this man...
Celebrities singing really don't surprise me as much as they used to, but when Ryan Gosling got on that piano and just went ham on the thing made my jaw drop.
Another thing that really invested me was just how fluid the dialogue and the movie in general felt; it was just that well-written. The dialogue was sharp and felt realistic and, to me at least, really captured what I imagined people in their respective situations would be like. And, to my surprise, amidst the more moving and dramatic moments in La La Land, there was also a surprising amount of humor - really good humor, at that - as well. Everything just felt so balanced, and I loved seeing that.
Now, I know what you're all here to read about. How are the musical numbers?
I can't even say that with a straight face; they were amazing. Now I'm hardly the biggest theater nut out there, and I do tend to get tired of hearing a lot of theater music when I'm not the one putting it on repeat, but the songs in this one are incredible, as was the choreography and camerawork. Most, if not all, the numbers looked as if they were all done in one take, which is insane to even think about. And not only are they really, really good, but they're also very well-timed, as well. A gripe I have with a lot of musical numbers is that I feel as if they start for the sake of having a musical number, but, in La La Land, everything felt organic.
I also just really love how retro this movie is without you even realizing it. The title cards feel as if they were taken out of those classic movie musicals. Doing that gave added so much more to the movie that I didn't even realize until I came out of the theater.
On top of all of this, the characters in La La Land were people I could relate to and sympathize with. They're also well-rounded and you could feel the struggles they were going through, and I really wanted to see both Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling succeed.
My only nitpicks with this movie are that, when some of the song numbers drift more towards the surreal side, I found them kinda jarring, mostly because I was already pretty invested in how grounded everything else was. This one moment at the end threw me for a loop, as well, but not for too long.
Regardless of my nitpicks, however, I still found La La Land pretty f*cking great. It was well-shot, well-written, well-acted, well-sung, and just generally well-made. I won't go so far as to say that this movie is Damien Chazelle's tour de force, as I found Whiplash to be the better movie, but I will give La La Land a Vader thumbs-up.
As far as movie musicals go, this became among my favorites pretty quickly, too.
Since I imagine you've seen La La Land already, instead of asking everyone what they thought about it, I'm gonna ask who your favorite celebrity Ryan is. That and what your favorite movie musical is, as well - you can include Popstar, there's no shame in that. Leave a comment, let me know. And, as always, this has been Rafa. Stay classy.
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