La La Land, a musical directed by Damien Chazelle, which won 7 golden globes and five oscars, is one of the best musicals I’ve ever watched. I actually could not take my eyes off the screen; the performance of the actors is so impressive, the music is magical, the cinematography is astonishing and the art direction is on point, the film is literally magical and vivid.
It was obviously inspired by the old musicals such as Top Hat or even Singin’ in the rain. As a matter of fact, like old musicals, it was staged like a theatre play, yet the director mastered the elements of cinema very well [editing, camera movement, shots] and I really liked that – this mixture of theatre and cinema was on point.
I also adored this touch of fantasy, it really made the film even more interesting and full of emotions.
I loved the art direction a lot, the colours were vivid and matched really well the theme of the film. The director aimed for the film to be set in the 50s but there was some modern elements such as the cell phone, I really loved this combination of modern and vintage.
Another thing that I loved was the soundtrack; it is so catchy and emotional [I also love jazz] – they didn’t win an oscar for best original music score for nothing.
The story of the film is very basic but it’s the way the director developed it and visualized it, which made the movie special and different.
On another note, Emma Stone’s acting was so genuine, she succeeded to transfer her emotions to the audience [in my opinion] which I don’t think was the case for Ryan Gosling [I still appreciated his acting though]. In fact, Emma Stone did receive an oscar for her performance as Mia and she really deserved it.
I would give La La Land a 9/10. I really thought it was a great movie, very well done and unforgettable.
