La La Land
(2016)Here's to the fools who dream.
Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling star in this all-singing, all-dancing musical comedy from the director of 2014's brilliant Whiplash. Story follows a jazz pianist who falls for an aspiring actress in Los Angeles. Multiple award winner at the 2017 Golden Globes including Best Picture (Comedy or Musical).
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Best Actress (Stone), Director, Original Song ("City of Stars"), Original Score, Cinematography and Production Design, Academy Awards 2017; Best Film, Best Director, Best Leading Actress (Stone), Cinematography and Original Music, BAFTAs 2017; Best Picture (Comedy or Musical), Best Director, Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical (Stone), Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical (Gosling), Best Screenplay, Best Original Song ("City of Stars") and Best Original Score, Golden Globes 2017; Best Actress (Stone) winner at Venice Film Festival 2016; People's Choice Award for Best Gala or Special Presentation, Toronto International Film Festival 2016
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Directed by Damien Chazelle
Starring Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, Finn Wittrock, J.K. Simmons, Sonoya Mizuno, Rosemarie DeWitt, John Legend
Written by Damien Chazelle
Out Now (On-Demand,
DVD or Blu-Ray)
On Demand, DVD & Blu-Ray
Available from 8 providers
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La La Land
BY MI grader
I must have missed the memo everyone else got, I struggled through LA LA Land, a lot of it felt very wooden and disjointed - as well as musically disappointing. It would have been a ball to make but it just didn't gel with me. Felt like it was overly self indulgent. Sadface! I really wanted to love it!
BY filmlover superstar
Stone and Gosling do a fine job with no other characters being fleshed out at all. The songs are average at best and the dancing essentially only works as an homage to West Side Story and the brilliance of Astaire and
Rogers. The strength of this film is that most of us can relate to the difficulties of maintaining a relationship under the pressure to achieve and the final scene... More perfectly illustrates all the emotionally charged hopes and dreams of lovers everywhere. If you don't like musicals don't go. If you love great musicals you may be less than impressed. La La Land is no 'The Way We Were' but in it's own small way it tells an age old story that is uplifting and depressing at the same time.Hide
BY jimcarroll grader
Loved it. A great homage to classic hollywood musicals like Singing in the Rain while also being modern and unique
BY Hugo-Burns superstar
BY KennethP91 superstar
Emma Stone plays Mia a struggling actress in Hollywood and Ryan Gosling plays Sebastian a struggling pianist in Hollywood. They fall in love in the most romantic, gorgeous and romantic way.
Let me start off by saying that this movie is amazing, from the music to the dance sequences to the cinematography to the overall look. Damien Chazelle has outdone himself in an incredible way.
Both Emma... More Stone and Ryan Gosling were great and you can feel the chemistry between them. They are comfortable with each other from their duets to their dance sequences it worked really well on screen and both should be given credit with their performance.
The dance sequences are also amazing as they appear to be filmed in one take, soaking you in as a viewer and keeps your eyes glued to the screen, Damien Chazelle did an incredible job filming the dance numbers and deserves a major award nomination at the very least.
The film’s overall look is gorgeous, you can tell this is a love letter to the older musicals in the 60s. The colours are usually primary colours with deep saturation which makes it pop in the screen which makes every scene look like a painting. The film’s music is also a huge plus as we can tell that Damien Chazelle has a deep love for Jazz. Each song is memorable and lovely to listen to, it does make you appreciate the genre a bit more.
La La Land is easily one of the best movies of 2016 and for people who loves musicals, jazz and loves to dance this is for them. From the romance to the music to it’s characters, this movie rejuvenates the lost love for musicals. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling were great and though you can tell they’re not singers, you can tell they had fun with this movie and it resonates to the audiences. La La Land is highly recommended for everyone.Hide
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The Press Reviews
Chazelle has crafted that rare thing, a genuinely romantic comedy, and as well, a rhapsody in blue, red, yellow and green. Full Review
Begins with such an ecstatic rush of joy -- and ends with such a gloriously bittersweet flourish -- that you kinda can't blame the film for sagging a bit in the middle. Full Review
Breaking into song and dance can be both deadly serious and a whole lot of fun. Full Review
For Chazelle to be able to pull this off the way he has is something close to remarkable. Full Review
The most audacious big-screen musical in a long time, and - irony of ironies - that's because it's the most traditional. Full Review
Such a happy, sweet-natured movie - something to give you a Vitamin D boost of sunshine. Full Review
La La Land gets its hooks (and harmonies) into you and by the end I was entranced by its love letter to Los Angeles... Full Review
It's simply impossible not to completely fall in love with. Full Review
Chazelle has assembled a vibrant, infectiously hummable pastiche of musical and cinematic styles - an entrancing ode to the glories of cinema past as well as a heartfelt expression of faith in the medium's future. Full Review
The characters, the chemistry, the story, the music, the dance, the romance, the view - it all tapped right into the inner recesses of my fanatical love affair with cinema. Full Review
A thoroughly modern musical which reminds what great cinema song and dance movies can be. Full Review
BY Dominic Corry Flicks Writer
About halfway through Damien Chazelle's quietly transcendent La La Land, aspiring actress Mia (Emma Stone) is reassuring a mildly dejected Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) about his unlikely dream of opening a jazz club in a world that doesn't care about jazz. The reason the club will be a success, asserts Mia, is because Sebastian himself is so passionate about jazz, and people enjoy responding to that kind of passion.... More
It's a pretty fair statement of intent for La La Land (substituting musicals for jazz), but it's not just Chazelle's highly evident passion for the form that makes the film so wonderful - he calmly takes the hand of his musical-phobic audience and walks them ever so gently into his woozily poetic vision, eventually enveloping them in a delirious ode to romance in all its meanings.
The film hits multiple aesthetic highs in a variety of classically cinematic Los Angeles locations, but Chazelle's masterstroke was presenting the whole affair in such a grounded milieu - there's a tangible familiarity to this world that makes it all the more accessible. And impactful. Rarely has a musical felt so...real.
It's always exciting when a filmmaker uses any power they have accrued to mount an unlikely passion project, and La La Land's status as the film Chazelle got to make thanks to the success of Whiplash only enhances its hopeful pleasures.
Ryan Gosling hasn't been this well-lit since Drive, and his contemporary-meets-classic presence is perfectly matched by Emma Stone's subtly-hesitant vulnerability.
Simply impossible to resist, La La Land is both a loving throwback and a bold step forward for Hollywood musicals. Its optimism is tempered by reality, but never at the expense of the film's butterfly-inducing romanticism. This movie is why movies exist.Hide
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