La La Land Movie Review

Who doesn’t love a good musical? La La Land is the story of two people that struggle to make ends meet while pursuing their dreams in LA. Though it is based in present time, the film takes us back many years to the thrill and romance of old Hollywood. The acting is amazing, the music is tasteful, and the story blows your mind.

The storyline is arguably one of the best aspects of this movie. Mia, a struggling actress, played by Emma stone, meets an unhappy and unemployed jazz musician named Sebastian, Ryan Gosling. They start off disliking each other but then grow to love each other. Their relationship goes through ups and downs and brings you right with it. The story is something you would see in an old 1940s Hollywood movie, but it’s been brought back to the year 2016. The end of the story leaves the viewer with many complicating emotions. Just enough for a great debate after the movie with friends or family.

Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling have a natural chemistry on screen. Their love was 100% believable. Throughout the filming of the movie, each actor went through huge lengths to bring the characters to life. Pre Production for this movie was months and months long. The actors needed time to learn to dance and prepare their voices for onset singing. Ryan Gosling even learned how to play the piano. He insisted that if he must play the piano in the movie, he should learn to play the piano in real life. Their hard work transformed into a largely celebrated, visual masterpiece.

Sebastian, the character Ryan gosling plays, is a jazz pianist. Jazz plays a very big part in this movie. The movie composer, Justin Hurwitz, brought jazz back to life through his modern twists on it. The music is one of a kind. It’s so good that hearing it repeated is a treat, rather than a bore. Just about all of the singing done by the actors was live, with little if any lip syncing. The tone of the music matched the movie very well. The music was placed into the movie in a way where the starts of songs were not awkward making it very enjoyable to listen to.

This movie was fantastic. I give it a five star rating and I know a bunch of other people that would say the exact same thing.