Film Review: ‘La La Land’ Will Create Love for Musicals Again

CHICAGO – “La La Land” has the spirit of an old time “Singin’ In The Rain”-type Hollywood musical, but this is no throwback or revival. It brings that spirit into the modern age and gets it to live, breathe, and thrive once again. It’s a beautiful technicolor spectacle that celebrates the whimsy of musicals, while finding a way to translate it credibly and wonderfully to the modern age.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

The story at its roots is a familiar one. Emma Stone is an aspiring actress named Mia whose closest brush with the movies is her job at a coffee shop on the Warner Brothers Lot. Ryan Gosling is a jazz musician named Sebastian who lets his principles get in the way of earning a steady living. They’re both struggling to find their way and keep some sliver of their souls in a town full of strivers where few get to do more than dream.

They requisitely “meet cute” is in a traffic jam on a Los Angeles freeway when he honks his horn at her and drives away in huff…while she’s running lines for an audition and holding up the cars behind her. Through a chance meeting later, they fall in love as they pursue their careers in Hollywood. It’s a movie about two people in “La La Land,” but it manages to find a deeper and more emotionally endearing level than what’s just on the surface, as they genuinely try to find a way to make a life out of pursuing their dreams.

Continue reading for Spike Walter’s full review of “La La Land” [20]

Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and Mia (Emma Stone) Are Relating in ‘La La Land’
Photo credit: Lionsgate

Continue reading for Spike Walter’s full review of “La La Land” [20]