CHICAGO– “La La Land” has the spirit of an old time “Singin’ In The Rain”-type Hollywood musical, but this is no throwback or revival. It brings that spirit into the modern age and gets it to live, breathe, and thrive once again. It’s a beautiful technicolor spectacle that celebrates the whimsy of musicals, while finding a way to translate it credibly and wonderfully to the modern age.
 Rating: 5.0/5.0 |
The story at its roots is a familiar one. Emma Stone is an aspiring actress named Mia whose closest brush with the movies is her job at a coffee shop on the Warner Brothers Lot. Ryan Gosling is a jazz musician named Sebastian who lets his principles get in the way of earning a steady living. They’re both struggling to find their way and keep some sliver of their souls in a town full of strivers where few get to do more than dream.
They requisitely “meet cute” is in a traffic jam on a Los Angeles freeway when he honks his horn at her and drives away in huff…while she’s running lines for an audition and holding up the cars behind her. Through a chance meeting later, they fall in love as they pursue their careers in Hollywood. It’s a movie about two people in “La La Land,” but it manages to find a deeper and more emotionally endearing level than what’s just on the surface, as they genuinely try to find a way to make a life out of pursuing their dreams.
Continue reading for Spike Walter’s full review of “La La Land” 
Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and Mia (Emma Stone) Are Relating in ‘La La Land’
Photo credit: Lionsgate
Continue reading for Spike Walter’s full review of “La La Land”