La La Land captures the feel of a classic Hollywood musical, and the critics are loving it.
Damien Chazelle’s etheral LA-centric musical La La Land debuted at the Venice Film Festival this week to what appears to be overwhelmingly positive reviews.
The film stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling as a pair of young creative hopefuls who battle both career and relationship blues in the melancholic romance that seeks to recapture the golden age of Hollywood musicals. And it seems like it succeeded.
The reviews coming out of Venice Film Festival have been full of high praise for Chazelle, who set the bar high with the Oscar-winning Whiplash.
Writes Pete Hammond for Deadline:
“[La La Land] is a gorgeous romantic fever dream of a musical that should hit contemporary audiences right in their sweet spot. It has been a very long time since we have seen something quite this lyrical, lovely, and most importantly, original on the screen, but at the same time it is a musical that has its feet firmly planted in the real world.”
IndieWire critic Eric Kohn, although noting that “La La Land is magically in tune with its reference points even as falls a few notes short of their greatness,” raves about the film’s visuals:
“Chazelle’s greatest skills stem from his ability to capture the physicality of music. Choreographer Mandy Moore gives her two main performers plenty of wondrous moments that should please any diehard Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers fans, and Chazelle even one-ups the Astaire-Rogers tradition by positioning our heroes in zero gravity.”
The Hollywood Reporter‘s Todd McCarthy recognizes that, while La La Land certainly won’t be for everyone, its target audience will love it:
“If you’re going to fall hard for Damien Chazelle’s daring and beautiful La La Land, it will probably be at first sight … for Chazelle to be able to pull this off the way he has is something close to remarkable. The director’s feel for a classic but, for all intents and purposes, discarded genre format is instinctive and intense; he really knows how to stage and frame dance and lyrical movement, to transition smoothly from conventional to musical scenes, to turn naturalistic settings into alluring fantasy backdrops for set pieces, and to breathe new life into what many would consider cobwebbed cliches.”
Alonso Duralde sums it all up for The Wrap:
Fans of musicals will adore this sparkling cinematic love letter, and if others are slow to embrace it, Chazelle’s screenplay sees them coming. “You don’t think it’s too nostalgic?” asks Mia, regarding her play. “That’s the point!” responds Sebastian. Mia: “And if people don’t like it?” Sebastian: “F–k ‘em!”
The critics all praise the ambitious opening musical number, as well as the performances by Gosling and Stone. It would appear that the dream-like cinematography, costumes, and general visual style is the true star of the film.
Do we smell Oscar buzz? Most definitely.