“People love what other people are passionate about.”

I’m really not a fan of musicals, typically, although I really haven’t seen very many of them, but this thoroughly impressed me. What amazes me is how Damien Chazelle went from a short film to a low-budget indie film to a full-blown, fully choreographed musical such as this. He really did come from humble beginnings, so the fact that he was able to shoot a musical film in a way that feels like he’s done it before is incredibly impressive. I would love to know how he did it, especially since this came out only two years after Whiplash.

To say the least, I was pretty much hooked from the get-go. The opening scene has such a fun energy to it, and it made me smile straight out of the gate. Every single actor you can tell gives it their all, even for the most mild background actors. Not only is the choreography great, but the music is too. I also wasn’t expecting the opening scene to set up the story in such a way. That’s one thing that was carried throughout the runtime, being that the movie was rather unpredictable, at least to me. I could see the ending being pretty predictable, but everything else, not so much.

The one thing that would have made or broken the movie, obviously, was the two main leads. Thankfully, they are both incredibly likable, even though one of them is a bit tough to like at the beginning. You can tell both of them are a bit inspired by Whiplash, where they are both just trying to follow their dreams (although not in as unhealthy a way, obviously), but life for them, just like real life, makes that difficult. I will say the setup and payoff for both of them when it came to their respective dreams was expertly done and very satisfying by the end. There were even some tiny details included that weren’t necessary, but were most certainly a nice touch.

Being a musical and all, both the music itself as well as the choreography have to be good. It’s not only good in La La Land, but enthralling to watch and listen to from start to finish. The main theme is extremely memorable, and all the accompanying music is fantastic too. The choreography doesn’t do anything crazy, but what it does do, it does very well. Most of the choreographed scenes were also shot in very long takes, which was very impressive. All of the musical scenes were queued in at just the right points in the movie too for them to be most effective.

I was also extremely invested in the relationship in the movie between Sebastian and Mia. I said previously that I liked both of the characters (at least, eventually both of them), but adding onto that, the chemistry between them was great. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone gave incredibly good performances both as characters and as two people in a relationship. I was really intrigued by both of their lives and what they were wanting to do, but also intrigued by the fact that they were trying to accomplish them whilst still trying to maintain a relationship and support one another. It was tough to watch, but in a good way if you know what I mean. A way where I was really rooting for them, equally in both their careers and their relationship.

Whiplash was shot beautifully and so I expected nothing less and got nothing less with La La Land. Not only was the cinematography gorgeous, but the way parts were shot to fit what was going on both inside the characters and with the story I found to be very effective. A specific example would be how characters were shot when they were isolated emotionally. It definitely wasn’t subtle, but I think musicals can get away with this, so definitely not a criticism.

If I did have to criticize the movie, it would probably have to be the pacing. It flew by for the most part, and to be honest, this is really more of a nitpick. However, the first half I was extremely hooked the entire time, while the second half definitely slows down in just a little bit of a jarring way. It by no means breaks the movie, but I would say I preferred the first half of the movie just a hair to the second half for that reason.

The slower pacing in the second half absolutely pays off though. This was the part of the story that I found the least predictable, and it made for an extremely impactful and satisfying ending, even though like I said, the ending itself could have been predictable. I won’t be going anywhere near spoiler territory, but it ends in a way where you still want more from the story, not meaning a sequel, but you want to know more about where the characters go from there. Think of it as an itch you can’t scratch.