La La Land (2016)

A little film. Not sure whether you might have heard of it yet? Damien Chazelle has followed up his astonishingly proficient "Whiplash" – my top film of 2015 – with a sure-fire theatre-filler in "La La Land". The old- fashioned musical extravaganza is back, and back with style!

"La La Land" tells the bittersweet love story of Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and Mia (Emma Stone) who first meet in an LA traffic jam but then get thrown together by chance (LA is such a small place after all!). Over the course of the next four seasons romance blossoms.

Mia is a struggling actress bouncing from audition to audition in a hopeless attempt to break through in LA's tough movie business. She makes ends meet as a Barista on the Warner Brother's lot. Meanwhile Sebastian is on a mission of his own: a talented musician, he is trying to restore jazz to the main stage (something the film's soundtrack will undoubtedly help do!) by opening his own classic jazz bar. As both strive for success on their own terms can love survive to deliver us the classic 'Hollywood ending'?

The film is technically astonishing, with clever continuous shots of the "Birdman" variety and masterly cinematography (by Linus Sandgren of "Joy" and "American Hustle"). The lighting team in particular is superb: a case in point is Mia's 'in-Seine' (sic) song, with breathtaking fades of the background to darkness, a camera whizz-around the actress for effect and then a brilliant fade back to reality. Loved it. Overall, there are enough similar moments in the film to make cinema-lovers like me gasp with delight.

There's a curious timelessness about the piece which is surely deliberate. Whilst there are obvious and non-apologetic throwbacks to the classic musicals of the 50's like "West Side Story" and "Singin' in the Rain" and references to "Casablanca" and "Rebel without a Cause", there is also a 60's vibe to the 'girls getting ready' sequence; an 80's A-ha cover thrown in at a pool party; and a Californian Prius obsession that is surely more 'noughties' than current. Most curiously, while everyone has smartphones no one seems to text anyone to announce changes to plans: the film is almost distancing itself from much of modern life.

In the acting stakes Emma Stone again shines like a beacon. She is just magnetic on the screen: (tiny spoiler) the biggest plot hole in the film is why on earth she wasn't given the part for her first audition! I was disappointed she didn't win the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for "Birdman" in the "87th Awards" (she lost out to Patricia Arquette for "Boyhood"): but she just keeps getting better and Better and BETTER.

Ryan Gosling's confident and cocky turn also radiates charisma: in particular, it is astonishing that Gosling could play "only a few chords" on the piano before training for the film. A confidence boost for struggling piano learners everywhere.

It is actually difficult to imagine two better actors for the roles. (Emma Watson allegedly turned it down for "Beauty and the Beast": something she might be kicking herself for!) Are they both the best singers and dancers when compared to Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Debbie Reynolds (R.I.P.) or Cyd Charisse? No, undoubtedly not, but they have an undeniable charm all of their own. (Perhaps we will see the ilk of the

Fmovies: When I first saw the trailer for La La Land my expectations were set high. The excellent cast, the music and an exciting new director/writer were enough to get me in the door. I'm always a bit hesitant when it comes to filmed musicals.. Will it be stagy, stilted and awkward? Not in this case. Damien Chazelle has made a wonderfully cinematic and loving ode to the dreamers and artists of the world. Having lived in LA and worked on both sides of the camera I can relate to much of this film's endearing observations, trials and tribulations; but anyone who's ever yearned for what seems impossible and searched for true love will also easily connect with this film's gargantuan heart. I'm a self proclaimed total movie snob not easily pleased by much of what I see, but La La Land gave me all the feels and more. I cannot recommend this film enough. It's the kind of film you leave and you don't want the buzz, the tickle, the movie-high to end. I can't wait to see it again when it's in wide release. The artist in me is inspired again.

I was interested in seeing this film because not only am I a sucker for a good musical, but I'll admit to being a big fan of Ryan Gosling and I was intrigued to see what the director of Whiplash would do with a musical picture to make it fresh and unique. So when I had the chance to see a late-planned viewing at the London Film Festival, I jumped at the chance (FYI, Ryan Gosling came to the screening as a surprise post- film Q&A attendee despite not appearing at the Headline Gala the night before so I was chuffed!)

The premise of the story is that Stone is a young actress who has moved to LA to wait tables while auditioning to try and 'make it', while Gosling is a jazz purist ("Anyone who doesn't like jazz just doesn't have the right...context", he insists) who plays the piano in bars to make a living and dreams of opening his own Jazz bar. Or to put it succinctly - "Two young artists meet and fall in love while chasing their dreams". The musical flows thematically from first love to heartbreak and every other emotion between, with great music throughout.

The most impressive thing about the film, for me, is just how daringly it dances between the old-fashioned "Singing' In The Rain" style of musical, and a bolder, modern style. The song numbers are great (the opening number received a round of applause in my viewing) and are an undoubted homage to classic musicals - a thoughtful mixture of old school dance numbers you'd expect from a musical in the 50s, and emotionally-wrenching ballads that hit you where it hurts; there is one particular sequence toward the end of the film which is a real gut-punch.

Stylistically the film skirts this same line; the film again looks and acts like a classic musical but frequently we see low-key reminders that this is modern day; actresses using their iPhones, a video being seen on Youtube, etc to remind us that this is set in the present day. If we didn't have these reminders, the visuals would almost have you thinking that this is the 1950s. The cinematography is beautiful and overall the film is visually stunning. There is also no doubt that it is wonderfully directed, with the same masterful control of pace and tension that we come to expect from Damien Chazelle thanks to Whiplash.

Gosling in particular is absolutely terrific, with a typically sardonic wit throughout. At the start of the film when his sister says she's worried about him as life seems to have him on the ropes, he responds "I wanna be on the ropes. I'm just letting life think it has me and then before you know it - BAM. It's a classic rope-a-dope". His delivery of these sorts of lines can't be matched, and it's easy to see why the producers said in the post-film Q&A that he was the person they wanted for the role in their wildest dreams. It's a role made for him with tons more of the above kind of lines. But more than that, Gosling captures a real emotional intensity at the film's emotional breaking points, more specifically in the sequence towards the end of the film that I mentioned earlier. He manages to convey such convincing emotion without so much as a word.

I'd feel bad if I didn't also praise Emma Stone, who has probably never been better. She has wonderful emotional range, from the ecstatic highs of love to the tearful, painful lows.

In terms of the Gosling/Stone films, this is by far the best. Their undoubted chemistry is given the full spotlight in this f

La La Land fmovies. Damien Chazelle is a young director who loves and knows movies, from Federico Fellini to Jacques Demy. Hallellujah! Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone go back to inspire us forward. What's more surprising than anything else is the feel of amateurishness in the dancing in the singing. So refreshing not to have a sleek but empty experience. Damian Chazelle' Whiplash was a brilliant preview of forthcoming attractions. I would love to see a thriller directed by Chazelle, something like Shadow Of A Doubt or even a glossy damsel in distress story like Midnight Lace. That's what happens when we discover a new and startling talent. You want to see him do everything. I have a feeling this young artist will.

The last time, I felt like this, in a cinema, I was six years old and I was watching Star Wars. I never imagined, I would ever find that feeling again in a cinema. That sense of being transported to another world.

The opening sequence took my breath away and I never got it back. Not even at the end - which left my head spinning. It is a beautiful film with soul, wit, charm, style and love. It is simply outrageous! Bold and fantastic and fantastical.

I am a straight man but my love for Ryan Gosling could change all that. He's a melancholy genius and Emma Stone is our muse.

This film defies genre. It is a masterpiece. I urge you to see it. I was lucky enough to see it at the BFI London Film Festvial.

It has been five days since I saw La La Land and I am still thinking about it and singing the haunting refrain that plays with your soul. I mean it gets in there - that music - the music of the firmament. Flying still, dreaming still... thank you Damien.

Writer/Director Damien Chazelle, who already had a nice career going for him, explodes into the Bigtime with this delightful, mesmerizing, and completely unexpected ode to Tinseltown.

The opening sequence (satirized on the Golden Globes) really does not do the rest of the film justice. It is as if the cast from the FAME remake grew up, had children of their own, and then those children hijacked the Santa Monica freeway to do a 10 minute flash-mob dance sequence.

From that point on, the film is hypnotic.

We segue to a love story as pure as anything since the great dramas of the 1940s. If the film had been in B&W, you would almost have expected to see Bette Davis in a 3-hankie tear jerker.

Except for the musical interludes, of course, which are pitch perfect and totally wonderful.

Gosling is surprising as a leading man expected to do song and dance, but he delivers the goods.

Stone, who was supposed to be "the next big thing" after Easy A (2010), steals the film and possibly the hearts of the audience as well. The awards should flow like water, and she will deserve every one.

As I said, deep in the DNA this is an ode to Hollywood. The film industry has always had issues with endings -- back in the day they would film several different endings per picture -- and then decide at the last minute which to use. Here Chazelle pays homage to that by giving us an alternate ending, along with the "real" ending, along with a closing sequence designed to remind everyone that nothing in Hollywood is actually real, but everything still can be really fun.

Destined to be a classic. Recommended.