Review of La La Land (2016) by Byron B — 17 Jul 2018

Shortly before watching this my wife and I had re-watched Singin' in the Rain because of the news of Debbie Reynold's death. La La Land is in the mold of those Techinicolor musicals of the 50s.

There are many stylistic touches that this has in common with those Gene Kelly toe-tappers and older Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers ones. Look at the scene represented by the poster (and the poster itself).

There is a streetlamp right there and the choreography given to Gosling and Stone has very similar shapes and poses to traditional Hollywood musicals. Also within a month before having the opportunity to see La La Land we had watched Jacques Demy's French New Wave musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.

The romantic plot where the young lovers don't actually spend most of the movie together and it ends with a melancholy tone seems to be borrowed straight from this other Techinicolor musical with less of the trappings of the Hollywood dream.

At its simplest this is a combination of those two classics. There is a bunch of great music on this soundtrack that makes you feel a whole range of emotions. It draws you in with feelings of being alive in Another Day of Sun.

It breaks your heart a little with Audition (The Fools Who Dream). Most of the music is written to convey romance. And the recurring theme song City of Stars is the perfect blend of romantic yearning and sadness.