Review of La La Land (2016) by Chiek E — 26 Jul 2017

Warm fuzzy feeling, and sweet sweet nostaligia for those who love the classical and conservative. Unforgetable and heart wrenching with a musical scores that dwellled long long after the film.. Incredible performance by Ryan and Emma with singing, dancing and musical skills so authentic.

La la land is as magical and thrilling as all the hype and excitement suggested. Since I don't go to the cinema anymore, its a six months wait from screening to receiving my Bluray. It was worth the wait to watch it privately on 4K 65" TV to avoid annoying noisy potato chips crunching neighbours in a ciniema.

Nothing must disturb me while I watch this great follow up on Whiplash from Damien Chazelle in creating this romance musical. Musicals is a tough genre because very few musicals have impressed me, perhaps because I haven´t been impressed with the castings of musical movies.

Not Chicago, or All that Jazz or Ma Ma Mia or the most recent Les Mizerables. But La La has hit the ball out of the court. It had two of the most winsome darlings and talented actors, Ryan and Emma. Their on screen chemistry was magic.

The heart simply soared to dizzy heights while watching them dance and sing. All focus centred on Ryan and Emma while everything else became oblivious and unimportant. Most scenes if not all were one shot long sequences underlining how challenging it was for the actors to get it right over a five minute non stop shot.

The choreography and set decorations were too beautiful for words. The ending was a reality bite because two talented people who are in love must go their separate ways because they had to make painful personal sacrifices including saying goodbye to sweet love in order to entertain the masses one day.

At least hopeless romantics like myself were treated to an alternate reality where Ryan and Emma would live together happily ever after. A greatly underrated actor, Gosling was brilliant at the piano with many close up scenes of his fingerings on the keyboard.

Yes, it was all Ryan. No doubles. It was heartening to have Chazelle so young and talented because we look forward to seeing more gems from him in the future.