By Nadia Ranaputri
Director: Damien Chazelle
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend, Rosemarie DeWitt
Damien Chazelle has a passion for everything music. It shows through his previous success in Whiplash. Now, he returns with a musical in which style balances well with its substance.
La La Land is the tale of two star-crossed dreamers who aspire to reach their goals and dream: Mia an aspiring actress, while Sebastian an aspiring jazz pianist. They meet in what was the beginning of their journey towards their dreams, leading to romance and obstacles aplenty.
Ryan Gosling is as always, charming as Sebastian. Sebastian is passionate yet aggressive, especially towards his love for jazz. One scene I really liked in particular, was where Sebastian pours his heart out on the fact that jazz is more than just 'elevator music'. "It's dying. The world says let it die, it had its time. Well, not on my watch", he tells Emma Stone's Mia in the scene.
Emma Stone completes the duo as Mia, a barista who is also an aspiring actress booking and auditioning roles in her spare time. Emma shines in her performance and she wonderfully portrays Mia's passion for making it big in the acting business as well as her struggle of doing so.
The film itself is style mixed with
substance. Its cinematography is luscious and the coloring made me think of the
settings of a classic musical, specifically Hollywood's Golden Age. La La
Land brims with touches of vintage and retro vibes, so it's fair to say that I
forgot that this film is set in modern day, as La La Land for me was a modern
film disguised as a classic. Somehow, La La Land's polished setting reminisces
those of Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel, with all its creative use of
colors, as well as the Golden Age setting like the 2011 film The Artist if it
had technicolor and audible dialogue.
For the first half of the film, it lives up to what it is: a musical. La La Land does not falter in delivering their original songs and dance numbers and you can't help but wish you were dancing and singing along with them. La La Land's numbers derives the norm of the usual modern musicals and pays homage to the classic musical numbers back in the day. My favorite number from the lot was the opening sequence that takes place in the LA traffic. The music behind it was also spectacular, from jazz to a little swing, the music creates a unique atmosphere.
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| Source: Yahoo |
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend, Rosemarie DeWitt
Damien Chazelle has a passion for everything music. It shows through his previous success in Whiplash. Now, he returns with a musical in which style balances well with its substance.
La La Land is the tale of two star-crossed dreamers who aspire to reach their goals and dream: Mia an aspiring actress, while Sebastian an aspiring jazz pianist. They meet in what was the beginning of their journey towards their dreams, leading to romance and obstacles aplenty.
Ryan Gosling is as always, charming as Sebastian. Sebastian is passionate yet aggressive, especially towards his love for jazz. One scene I really liked in particular, was where Sebastian pours his heart out on the fact that jazz is more than just 'elevator music'. "It's dying. The world says let it die, it had its time. Well, not on my watch", he tells Emma Stone's Mia in the scene.
Emma Stone completes the duo as Mia, a barista who is also an aspiring actress booking and auditioning roles in her spare time. Emma shines in her performance and she wonderfully portrays Mia's passion for making it big in the acting business as well as her struggle of doing so.
 |
| Source: Yahoo |
For the first half of the film, it lives up to what it is: a musical. La La Land does not falter in delivering their original songs and dance numbers and you can't help but wish you were dancing and singing along with them. La La Land's numbers derives the norm of the usual modern musicals and pays homage to the classic musical numbers back in the day. My favorite number from the lot was the opening sequence that takes place in the LA traffic. The music behind it was also spectacular, from jazz to a little swing, the music creates a unique atmosphere.
 |
| Source: PopSugar |
The second half in which our two protagonists
hit their speedbumps was where it briefly falters. For all its passion, it does feel
realistic as not everything will go the way they wanted to, but this was also
where La La Land somehow forgets that it's a musical; focusing more on the
dialogue-centric scenes than dance numbers. It doesn't mean that it's a bad
thing. La La Land does poke fun at the tropes of its genre, but it also shows
the realistic side of things, where dreams can go sideways and cause
relationships to go haywire. As La La Land starts with brimming optimism, it
also faces realism in which aspirations are questioned once they're reached. It
poses the question of "what would you do?" and what you would sacrifice to maintain your aspiration in a way. Still, it
doesn't drag the film down, rather it draws in a lot more of the film's passion
for dreamers and artists alike.
In all, La La Land is another strong entry from Damien Chazelle. As with Whiplash, Chazelle brings out his love for music, especially jazz, as well as the dreamers; the fools who dream. It pays homage to the classic musicals through the dance numbers and cinematography, which made the experience ever the more cherished. La La Land may have some style over substance aspects, but for the most part, it is style mixed with a passionate dose of substance.
Stars: 4.5/5
In all, La La Land is another strong entry from Damien Chazelle. As with Whiplash, Chazelle brings out his love for music, especially jazz, as well as the dreamers; the fools who dream. It pays homage to the classic musicals through the dance numbers and cinematography, which made the experience ever the more cherished. La La Land may have some style over substance aspects, but for the most part, it is style mixed with a passionate dose of substance.
Stars: 4.5/5
