Romantic musical comedy La La Land has taken critics and audiences by storm since its widespread release in early January. Many have praised the film’s writer and director Damien Chazelle and applauded soulful performances from Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling and the award-winning original soundtrack.
La La Land was conceived and written by Chazelle in 2010 as a tribute to the dying genre of Hollywood musicals, but he initially struggled to find a studio willing to invest in such a risky project. After graduating from Harvard University, the filmmaker moved to Los Angeles, where he wrote and directed the 2014 film Whiplash starring Miles Teller. The film was a critical and commercial success, earning several awards and nominations, including a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for Chazelle.
After the success of Whiplash, studios became more interested in producing La La Land, a more complex and expensive production that took almost two years to make. Miles Teller was even contacted to star in the film for a certain point. Stone and Gosling underwent months of rehearsal before shooting began and the film spent nearly a year in editing as Chazelle worked to ensure he captured his stylistically dark but fantastical tone.
The film is visually stunning, opening with an ambitious dance number shot in one take on an overpass in Los Angeles. This one-take method is used throughout the film to create some beautiful scenes like the meeting at sunset between Sebastian (Gosling) and Mia (Stone) and their silhouetted dance among the stars at a planetarium.
A mesmerizing soundtrack perfectly complements Chazelle’s gorgeously imagined Los Angeles, allowing these iconic musical numbers to fit seamlessly into the progression of the engaging story of love and ambition. The development of the chemistry between Mia and Sebastian is believable, but the film ultimately succeeds not as a romance but as a darker tale of sacrifice. La La Land depicts Hollywood as a dreamland but exposes the truth that following one’s dream forces one to make difficult choices.
Emma Stone excels as Mia, an aspiring actress who grows disenchanted by her lack of success in auditions and inexplicably becomes embroiled in a whirlwind romance with a struggling jazz musician. They are passionate about different things, but bond over their mutual ambition to follow their dreams.
Stone’s portrayal is heartfelt, drawing from her own experience as an aspiring actress to deliver a nuanced performance. Mia is a sympathetic and driven character who is defined independently of Sebastian, allowing the story to break away from tired romance tropes to explore other themes. It is Stone’s superb acting that sets this story apart from a genre that is oversaturated with generic and uninspired rom-coms.
Gosling falls just short of Stone as Sebastian, not just because of his shaky tenor that sometimes struggles to match her strong, expressive vocals. He does an excellent job emulating James Dean in testing the line between charmingly burly and unnecessarily aggressive, but his portrayal works well with Stone’s character, particularly in the rough parts of their relationship.
The dynamic between Mia and Sebastian is most engaging when they are at odds, exemplified by the song “A Lovely Night,” in which they complain about wasting the evening in one another’s company.
The film’s opening and closing acts are impeccable, but its weakest section falls in the middle, while Mia and Sebastian are engaged in pursuing their dreams, and their relationship is going smoothly. Although developing their romance is instrumental to earning the unexpected but well-executed ending, this middle section isn’t especially engaging and is riddled with forgettable secondary characters.
A guest feature from John Legend as the leader of a mainstream jazz band that Sebastian joins should have invigorated this film. Make no mistake, John Legend is an exceptional musician and was well suited to the role, but he was wasted as a character who appeared conveniently and faded out when the story didn’t need him anymore.
The same can be said of Mia’s boyfriend (Finn Wittrock), who slipped from memory before he’d had a chance to leave an impression. Props to Chazelle for not using her boyfriend to resort to a tired love triangle, but why bother with him at all?
Despite some weaknesses in the story, the development of Mia and Sebastian’s relationship is well-paced and comes to an original conclusion, and the highly stylized, fantastical world allows Chazelle to explore the way we perceive the glamour of Hollywood and what it can mean to chase this unrealistic dream.
An incredible soundtrack, genuine and nuanced performances from Stone and Gosling and inspired direction from Chazelle make La La Land a film that earns its hype, its accolades and the price of admission.
La La Land is also up for Best Picture in this year’s Academy Awards, with Gosling picking up a Best Actor nod.
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