Review of Barracuda (2017) by Thewaffle — 28 Sep 2017

Great characters and direction are wasted in this magical outing for the simple fact that the music is utterly forgettable. For a film so focused on music and theater, it can't manage to pull together any creative effort that breaks the mold.

The great musical films have you walking out of the theater with a song in your head that you just can not get out of your mind: Singin' in the Rain, White Christmas, Moulin Rouge's Come What May. None of the songs in La La Land leave any kind of lasting impression.

And though Stone and Gosling have good screen presence, it's hard to imagine that there weren't better dancers/singers on offer in LA's sprawling theater scene. Several of the dance scenes and songs seem limited by their talents, and the movie's core message about ambition and creativity would have been much more powerful if the film featured true no-names rather than a highly successful actor and actress.