La La Land (2016), PG-13, ★★★★

Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone pairing up for the third time.

Musicals...oh, musicals. We do not get as many musicals in our lifetime but we have been getting movies about music in recent years such as Straight Outta Compton and Sing Street. But, nowadays, not many people do not care about musicals and I understand it from the point of view on the business side. It is not the golden age of Hollywood. A lot of people want to see sequels or superhero films. I have to be honest...again because I am not a big fan of the genre and it is one of my least favorite genres along with romantic comedies and horror, even though, 2016 has been a stellar year for horror films. But, watching La La Land was like witnessing a throwback to the 1950s era of musicals and it is a sublime revelation to behold as it produces, and, I am going to surprise you, one of the few perfect musicals ever made.

The movie opens on a one-shot 105/110 interchange in Los Angeles as people are stuck in traffic listening to various types of music as they are singing the opening number, "Another Day of Sun", as it is a typical winter for them in California. During the traffic, Mia (Emma Stone) is going over her lines for an audition as Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) honks his car horn for her to move. She flicks him off as he moves forward as the traffic is also moving.

Mia works as a barista at a coffee shop at the Warner Bros. lot serving coffee for the employees at the studio. Mia rushes off to an audition but unfortunately she bumps into a customer having a coffee cup, forcing the customer to spill on the majority of her white shirt. She goes into the audition to do her reading and give an honest performance as she is tearing up until the casting director interrupts Mia's audition to allow the assistant to come in and bring in some news. Mia walks away along with the similarly-clothed actresses. She dreams to become one of the top actresses in the industry.

Sebastian dreams of owning a jazz club but he witnesses a jazz club being closed and turning into a Samba/Tapas place. He lives in a run-down apartment and has to pay some bills. As Mia finds out that she has stayed at a party for too long as she witnessed her car not being there in the "towed area", she hears Sebastian playing music from a jazz club. He and his manager (J.K. Simmons) get into an argument whether or not Sebastian can play his own music. But, his manager refuses and tells him to play Christmas music. However, Sebastian improvises to play his own music, impressing Mia but allowing the manager to fire him even though it is Christmas.

Later, in springtime, Mia finds Sebastian again but he is playing the keyboard with an 80s rock band. That night, Mia escapes conversation from a writer to hang out with Sebastian as they bicker about finding her car and they perform a great dance number, reminiscent of the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers era. The next day, Sebastian finds Mia at the coffee shop and they talk about their lives and their dreams as Mia aspires to become a famous actress whereas Sebastian wants to be a famous jazz musician because he lives and breathes jazz. They have become acquired with each other and start going out in the summertime until Sebastian gets an opportunity of a lifetime and Mia comes up with an idea for a play that will cause her to work for a long while.

John Legend and Ryan Gosling having a chat.

This movie impressed me. I was on board from the first minute of the film as the woman starts singing along the opening number and the camerawork of the whole freeway scene is sublime. What impressed me was that Damien Chazelle, the director, and his cinematographer, Linus Sandgren, incorporated modern technology and filmmaking into the 1950s musical. It is a bold and fresh take of the musical genre. Most of the musical numbers have that same camerawork and framework helping out with the choreography, which is assembled by Mandy Moore (another one, not the actress). And, they still incorporate it with a magical sequence taking place in the Griffith Observatory while Stone's and Gosling's characters are on a date.

Speaking of the music, I did not find one single musical number boring and that is very rare for myself because I always get nitpicky with live-action musical numbers that try to push the narrative forward but most of the time, it delays the picture. Nope, with musicals such as The Sound of Music, Singing in the Rain, Sweeney Todd and this movie, the songs push the narrative and tone forward. My favorite numbers are the opening number, City of Stars and A Lovely Night. It pushes the boundaries of trying to become a Broadway musical but it is better to witness the movie from a cinematic point of view.

Emma Stone gives her best performance of her career and should definitely consider her as one of the front runners for the highly competitive Best Actress Oscar. It is a tough year but great year for actresses in general. She captures the witty and innocent mood of a woman who is chasing her dreams of becoming a star but somehow we feel compassionate towards her because unfortunately, we witness reality as she is struggling to get a role in any form of media in the industry. Ryan Gosling  gives another strong performance this year (he has had, finally, another good year with this movie and The Nice Guys) as a person who is down on his luck but tries to also chase his dream by trying to save the jazz genre by opening up a jazz club. It is wonderful to see Stone and Gosling have chemistry as they are now comfortable with each other since they have done two movies: the wonderful rom-com Crazy, Stupid Love and terrible Gangster Squad.

Here's why I think that this is a perfect musical: the movie has a great inspiring story, it has a terrific romanceand it has been a long while since I have seen a great old-fashioned romance (I meant old-fashioned because I thought Deadpool had a solid love story), great music and score by Justin Hurwitz, fantastic cinematography and choreography and a realistic tale of how people live in Los Angeles especially in the film and music industry. When reality hits them, it hits hard. Damien Chazelle hits another home run after his brilliant debut, Whiplash, which was one of the best movies of 2014 as he, not to give anything away, ends the movie on a perfect note which could have been done badly in the wrong hands. He is a confident director and his joy of filmmaking is observed in each single scene of the movie. A family outing or a date night is appropriate for this experience as this movie has a blend of happiness and sadness that incorporates it with magical dreams, goals and reality. This is corny but this is a magically visual movie to behold and it is without question one of the very best movies of the year.

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