Film Review: La La Land

This will probably be quite a short review, because, as usual, I left it way too long after watching to get round to writing about it, and also because I have a VERY long to-do list unfortunately (including some more blog posts though!)

I had been wanting to see this film since its release and had made plans with friends to see it several times, which kept falling through! Eventually, after a horrible, long week of uni deadlines, my flatmate and I decided to spend our Sunday in Dundee for a bit of shopping, lunch and cinema. It was a MUCH NEEDED treat.

The hype around this had been huge, and at this point it was nominated for a lot of awards (we went on the Sunday afternoon before the Oscars and all the drama with Moonlight and mix-ups ... if you didn't hear about this then you can read about it in this BBC news article ).

Anyway, despite all of the coverage I realised as we entered the cinema that I actually had very little idea what it was about. All I knew was that it starred Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, was a musical, allegedly had beautiful music, was very emotional and was supposedly rather beautiful! So it sounded right up my street!

Brief Summary: Mia is an aspiring actress, waitressing while she auditions over and over again in LA, and Sebastian is a jazz musician and phenomenal pianist who struggles to keep jobs working as restaurant entertainment, but dreams of opening his own jazz club. The two meet, but can they both love each other and achieve their very separate dreams?

From the very first number it was.. well ... a bit odd! Not in a bad way, but the big, lively opening song appeared to have no real correlation to the rest of the plot.

The music WAS pretty beautiful, and I loved the costumes too. There wasn't really much of a story though! The pair were strangers one minute and in love the next, and the only real climactic point of action was when Mia decided she wants to quit acting, but Sebastian insists she go to the big audition. I make a rule of not including major spoilers, but I will say that that was both a good and bad decision on his part!

It was a love story, and at times that was beautiful, but to be honest I don't think you actually felt connected enough as a viewer to the characters' relationship to root for their love.

What I did root for was their goals. The moments depicting struggle and ambition were particularly heart-warming. Especially Mia's big audition song, "The Fool's Who Dream". I will always relate to the idea of trying to 'make it' in the artistic world, to self doubt, to wondering if its worth it, and I think La La Land, and both Stone and Gosling, depicted these struggles beautifully.

On a side-note, I LOVED

Emma Stone's reaction to

winning her Oscar...

she just seemed so genuine,

like she truly could not believe it!

The dancing, which had been one of the main focuses of the hype, was a little underwhelming! It wasn't that adventurous, and was a bit samey throughout! The idea of two people spontaneously dancing, while a little odd, was pretty romantic though. I particularly enjoyed the museum scene, it was fairly breath-taking.

Finally, I'm afraid I wasn't a fan of the ending. I mean, it wasn't awful... without giving it away, its not a cliché fairy-tale ending, but it is happy in its own way. I just didn't like the way it was done. Like, the whole film is about the couple and let's just say that in an annoyingly short space of time, Mia moves on VERY QUICKLY! Like, who even was that guy at the end?! Rant over.

Overall, I think it was a nice film, and sections of it really were magical and inspiring, but I actually found myself laughing at bits that weren't meant to be funny, just because they were kind of bizarre! I do, however, want to see it again when its on DVD or Netflix, just because I think it's one of those films that could really do with a second watch. Not my favourite film, and I struggle to understand how it got quite that many awards, but certainly a nice feel good for the end of a busy week!