La La Land
Academy Award × 6
Rent/Purchase
Mia, an aspiring actress, serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions and Sebastian, a jazz musician, scrapes by playing cocktail party gigs in dingy bars, but as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.
What critics thought
Chazelle's romantic musical swept critics into near-unanimous rapture for its cinematography, Stone and Gosling's chemistry, and its wistful meditation on dreams deferred — but a vocal counter-current emerged, targeting the film's racial politics around jazz and the 'white savior' framing of Gosling's character, the leads' modest singing and dancing, and a middle section widely felt to drag. The gap between the awards-season coronation and the backlash that followed became almost as discussed as the film itself.
“succeeds both as a fizzy fantasy and a hard-headed fable, a romantic comedy and a showbiz melodrama, a work of sublime artifice and touching authenticity”
A.O. Scott·The New York Times
“Chazelle has crafted that rare thing, a genuinely romantic comedy, and as well, a rhapsody in blue, red, yellow and green.”
Tom Charity·Sight & Sound
“the year's most seriously pleasurable entertainment”
Michael Phillips·Chicago Tribune
“the old-fashioned screenplay, by the ambitious writer-director Damien Chazelle, reeks of mothballs”
Rex Reed·New York Observer
“his quest (and eventual success) to save the traditionally black musical genre from extinction, seemingly the only person who can accomplish such a goal.”
Kelly Lawler·USA Today
Genres
Comedy, Drama, Music
Cast & Crew
DirectorDamien Chazelle
StarringRyan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend, Rosemarie DeWitt, Finn Wittrock
ComposerJustin Hurwitz
La La Land
Academy Award × 6
Mia, an aspiring actress, serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions and Sebastian, a jazz musician, scrapes by playing cocktail party gigs in dingy bars, but as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.
What critics thought
Chazelle's romantic musical swept critics into near-unanimous rapture for its cinematography, Stone and Gosling's chemistry, and its wistful meditation on dreams deferred — but a vocal counter-current emerged, targeting the film's racial politics around jazz and the 'white savior' framing of Gosling's character, the leads' modest singing and dancing, and a middle section widely felt to drag. The gap between the awards-season coronation and the backlash that followed became almost as discussed as the film itself.
“succeeds both as a fizzy fantasy and a hard-headed fable, a romantic comedy and a showbiz melodrama, a work of sublime artifice and touching authenticity”
A.O. Scott·The New York Times
“Chazelle has crafted that rare thing, a genuinely romantic comedy, and as well, a rhapsody in blue, red, yellow and green.”
Tom Charity·Sight & Sound
“the year's most seriously pleasurable entertainment”
Michael Phillips·Chicago Tribune
“the old-fashioned screenplay, by the ambitious writer-director Damien Chazelle, reeks of mothballs”
Rex Reed·New York Observer
“his quest (and eventual success) to save the traditionally black musical genre from extinction, seemingly the only person who can accomplish such a goal.”
Kelly Lawler·USA Today
Genres
Comedy, Drama, Music
Cast & Crew
DirectorDamien Chazelle
StarringRyan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend, Rosemarie DeWitt, Finn Wittrock
ComposerJustin Hurwitz
Rent/Purchase