Fearing for a full fledged musical due to the title “La La Land (2016)” I hesitated when a friend called me for this film. The film did have songs, thanks to brilliant placements of them in the storyline like in “City of Stars” it all blended producing a delightful experience. The title has the words “LA LA” probably to signify the romance between the couple on screen and to show it’s a musical land; I felt it could also be taken as an abbreviation L.A. as in Los Angeles to show that each of them come to Hollywood (LA) to realise their dreams.
Mia (Emma Stone) is an aspiring actress working as a barista in a coffee shop inside a movie studio in Hollywood, Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) is a traditional jazz pianist who dreams of setting up his own jazz music bar. They accidentally meet up in a party and start seeing each other. A beautiful romance develops between them that’s musical. After much struggle each of them succeed in their dreams but they end up not being together anymore. The song sequences are a delight to watch. While Mia auditions singing “The fools who dream” which was about Paris in a dark room I was able to visualise in my eyes the Paris city and Seine river, such was the intensity of emotions in the moment and performance by Emma Stone <Clap> <Clap>.
Overall, a brilliant movie that’s sure to win few Oscars this year.