Starring Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, John Legend and J.K. Simmons, La La Land is the love story of a jazz pianist and an aspiring Hollywood actress. It is a well-told story that features great dramatic performances, good dialogue, beautiful cinematography, music and costume; I particularly love ‘that yellow dress’.

Written/directed by Damien Chazelle of Whiplash (2014), La La Land is a good movie that’s understandably most loved by fans of musicals. I must confess that, generally speaking, I’m not into musicals. Call it a consequence of my impatient nature, but most of the time, I’d much rather words were spoken rather than sung. The pleasing rhythm of well-written dialogue will always be preferred by me over the sounds of what is often mediocre singing, where musicals are concerned. And, if the singing isn’t mediocre, I find the voices to be regularly quite tedious.

In La La Land, there’s just no faulting the dramatic performances. The cast are a trust worthy bunch acting-wise. As for when it came to Gosling and Stone flexing their vocal chords in the name of song, there are definitely some moments of questionable vocal ability.

I enjoyed the opening song at the start of La La Land, the big ‘audition number’ that Stone sings towards the end, plus the instrumental as the closing credits began. The rest of the music I honestly could have done without.

Watch La La Land for all the reasons it won all those Oscars, and because it genuinely isn’t a bad film. If Chazelle’s Whiplash managed to convince you that jazz isn’t all bad, La La Land is additional material to strengthen the argument.

Happy Film Loving,

G