'La La Land' A Review

La La Land is a musical romance about two aspiring artists Mia(Emma Stone) and Sebastian(Ryan Gosling) who have a handful of chance encounters before they begin dating. Mia struggles to get her acting career off the ground and Sebastian bums around as a jazz musician. There's singing and dancing and a dating montage. Mia, frustrated with auditioning without booking anything and under Sebastian's encouragement writes a one woman show. Sebastian, after overhearing a conversation Mia has with her mother decides to go legit and join a friend in a modern jazz fusion band. Their divergent paths cause a rift in their relationship. Will their relationship survive their artistic ennui?

Gosling and Stone bring their considerable charm and chemistry to bear and although their voices and dancing are proficient they are far short of dazzling. Their strength is their acting and there are few scenes where they are allowed to do so. There are a few numbers where they hit a certain grace and resonance but it is momentary and bookended by lackluster competence. There are some great people in the supporting cast but they don't have much to do. John Legend, J.K. Simmons, and Rosemarie DeWitt are particularly wasted.

The film certainly has a lot of style, impressive camera work and vibrant colors, but it lacks any semblance of substance. The leads are not only two thin, attractive, privilaged, incomprehensibly economically stable individuals that achieve their dreams with little to no adversity they display almost no personality until the film's third act. We virtually know nothing about who these people are until the film is almost over. Despite the best efforts of the actors the characters are simple flat sketches in place so that they can sing and dance rather than singing and dancing for any actual emotional purpose. If there's any comment or message on romance, Hollywood, ambition, artistic integrity, it is muddled to the point of being lost.

Superficially entertaining. A throwback that doesn't have the performative finesse of its inspiration or the character complexity of the contemporary.

Don't See It.