DIRECTOR: DAMIEN CHAZELLE LEAD
CAST: RYAN GOSLING, EMMA STONE SCREENWRITER: DAMIEN CHAZELLE PRODUCER:
FRED BERGER, GARY GILBERT, JORDAN HOROWITZ, MARC PLAT EDITOR: TOM
CROSS MUSICAL DIRECTOR: JUSTIN HURWITZ GENRE:
ROMANTIC MUSICAL COMEDY CINEMATOGRAPHER: LINUS SANDGREN
DISTRIBUTOR: SUMMIT
ENTERTAINMENT LOCATION:
LOS ANGELES, UNITED STATES RUNNING
TIME: 128 MINUTES
Technical assessment:
3.5
Moral assessment:
3
CINEMA rating:
V 13
Jazz enthusiast
and down and out pianist Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and Mia (Emma Stone), a
barista with dreams of becoming an actress, first meet in an awkward road rage
situation while stuck in Los Angeles’ highway traffic jam. Their paths cross again when Mia’s car is towed:
walking home she drops by a bar and finds Sebastian playing Christmas carols on
the piano. Their third meeting is at a
party Mia attends, where Sebastian is on the keyboard of the live band. It seems like destiny after three
encounters. Sebastian then takes Mia to
a jazz bar where he discloses his ambition to have his own jazz bar; Mia
reciprocates by sharing her dreams of becoming an actress.
Because La La Land is supposedly a musical
rom-com drama, the boy-meets-girl plot flows into a boy-dances-with-girl number
on the moonlit night they meet. First
they fight, then they flirt, then they fall in love. Then they live together. But will the director pursue the affair to
its logical and box-office friendly conclusion?
The chemistry between Gosling and Stone is obvious—this being their
third pairing (after Crazy, Stupid Love and
Gangster Squad)—and the story of
love and ambition in Hollywood is deftly presented, and yet…there is something
amiss, something artificial about the movie that stands in the way of total
enjoyment. Maybe what’s distracting is the
fact that Stone and Gosling are neither singers nor dancers—they were just
trained for their roles for a few months, and it shows. (Stone nailed it, though, in the emotional audition
scene towards the end).
Families would benefit from discussions with the
young on how love impacts one’s ambitions, and how ambition challenges one’s
commitment to permanence in relationships.
The situation is universal although the setting is glittery Los Angeles
(LA, thus La La Land), something relatable to Filipinos familiar with the
socio-emotional costs of working overseas away from loved ones. Young people with hopes of entering showbiz
will also learn a thing or two here about the industry behind the scenes and the
realities of sacrificing one’s passion and art on the altar of expediency.
