La La Land

 

DIRECTED BY-: 
Damien Chazelle
 

STARRING-: 

Ryan Gosling 

Emma Stone 

Rosemarie DeWitt

YEAR OF RELEASE-: 

2016

PREMISE-: 

While navigating their careers in Los Angeles, a pianist and an actress fall in love while attempting to reconcile their aspirations for the future.

A few plot contrivances around the two main characters inhibited this from being COMPLETELY perfect, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t come close. Damien Chazelle took what could have been a very generic romance story and successfully transformed it into a truly visceral experience by embellishing every scene with a melodious soundtrack, beautiful cinematography and choreography, and by involving two of the most talented actors of this generation. 

‘La La Land’ is one of the perfect examples of a simplistic story being enhanced by strong direction, intelligent stylistic choices, and mesmerizing performances. The film also does a commendable job of paying homage to other classics in this genre without being derivative. Emma Stone gave the performance of a lifetime and completely deserved her academy award. Despite the beats between the two main characters feeling very familiar, their relationship, interactions, and their respective paths of life were meticulously & satisfyingly developed and executed. Even though there are moments of levity sprinkled throughout, the film as a whole has a very bittersweet, melancholic and wistful tone to it, all of which crescendoes in the very final shot of the film. Because of this, and the beautiful yet somber symbolic representation of everything about the characters, the ending sequence is undoubtedly in the list of my all time favorite scenes.

RATING -: 8/10