La La Land (2016) - Review

La La Land is a 2016 Musical/Romance film directed by Damien Chazell, and starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, and was released in the year 2016.

The film follows Gosling and Stone’s characters, Stone being Mia (an aspiring actress), and Sebastian (a jazz musician), and their story through their journey to kick start their careers, as they develop a relationship between each other. Their relationship gets put through the test as the two both become more and more successful in their careers.

The film received much commercial and critical acclaim upon its release, with critics praising its screenplay, direction, performances, the chemistry of both Gosling and Stone, as well as the film's musical score and musical numbers. The film also received 14 Oscar nominations and 6 wins, as well as other awards during the season at the 89th Academy Awards (it also won best picture... for about one minute).

But is the film as good as everyone says it is? ...Yes, and no. It’s visually beautiful, that’s no lie. The film does a fantastic job in showing the dreamy and wonderlike “Los Angeles” that so many of us only dream of making a living in one day (hence the title ‘La La Land’), and it does it in such a way where it doesn’t glamorize Hollywood, or try to make it in the Arts. It shows how hard it is, how stressful, frustrating and emotional it can be, but it does it in such a way where it still feels real, it still makes it appealing to the general public. Its use of sound and color and the way it mixes together makes the whole film feel like a dream when viewing it. It’s not doubt that both Gosling and Stone’s performances are electrifying, and probably the best of Stone’s career. Gosling was quite surprising, in his performance. Though his vocal performance may not have been as strong as his acting, or as Stone’s singing, it was still quite impressive. The whole performance is incredibly real, and true when you consider all the statements about the film's two leads and their perfect chemistry. The two are so believable as a struggling couple. They carry the film, and it’s because of them that make the cons about the film (which I will get to soon) almost unimportant.

The film's story, however, doesn’t hold up the same way the other things I’ve mentioned do. I know not every film's screenplay needs to be original, and complete devoid of clichés, or all that jazz, but the story is almost as unoriginal as one can get. How many times have we seen a relationship between a man and a woman become “tested” due to something related to one or both of their careers. If you take away the music, the wonderful sound mixing, color, and performances, all you really get is yet another Hollywood movie, about Hollywood and the struggles of Hollywood. It’s formulaic, sadly predictable, unoriginal, and cliché. It never hooks you, it’s never surprising, you know what’s going to happen because it’s a story we’ve heard over, and over.

Do I think that the film didn’t deserve its critical success? No, I recognize the good this movie has, and I understand the love the film has received. As I’ve already stated, the film has many good things about it that can absolutely make it a good film, and even one of the best of the year. I just feel that it isn’t fair, nor is it right, to even acknowledge the fact that unlike even some of cinema's best, there will be, and there are always, flaws.