La La Land

A gem where Damien Chazelle beautifully led me as a viewer. It all looks and sounds beautiful, but I had a problem adjusting to the fact that La La Land is too retro and a tribute to old musicals. But the director saves the strong emotions, the brutally truthful moments, and a slightly harsher treatment of the protagonists for the last third. That truly broke me. And it is precisely the contrast between the beautiful dreamlike world full of color and love and the reality that can be very cruel to dreamers that places La La Land among the films that simply must be seen. (05/15/2017)

To be honest, musicals have never been and never will be my cup of rooibos. On the other hand, though, Damien Chazelle is a lure that I wouldn’t like to miss out on. At least because of Whiplash, which was perfection. You see, despite its plain premise, La La Land has great dance numbers, a perfect couple in the form of Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, some very good songs and an almost perfect final scene, which any lover of films who believes that movies are made mainly to entertain shouldn’t miss out on. However, the entire film doesn’t have only these few strengths, it also proves that Damien Chazelle is not only a precise filmmaker, but also a great lover of jazz music with whom it can be expected that he will be forcing his love for jazz on us a couple more times in the future. And I for one will not mind at all. (01/21/2017)

The only musical since Moulin Rouge! that is not only artistically beautiful, but also internally fragile. The most poetic romance since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. And maybe the ”cutest” movie ever, with its heart on its sleeve. It is a wonderful tribute to film, music, love and the city of stars (pardon, angels), which won’t give you anything for free. Damien Chazelle is a game changer; he understands much more deeply than anyone else. And he does what he wants without disturbing the perfect fulfillment of the genre template. In short, he’s the greatest new filmmaking talent of this decade. (01/22/2017)

A charming update of a classical musical, which, in the captivating rhythm of jazz, tells the sensual story of two souls whose paths were supposed to come together, but they just intersected. It made me so sad and was hard on my soul that I wanted to poke my brain with a needle from a turntable in front of all that technicolor beauty. Do you love jazz this much too? (01/04/2017)

Am I supposed to feel touched by a stupid romance between two unlikeable, narcissistic elitarians? Am I supposed to suffer because of their first world problems? All because of a film with a plot disguised as a ridiculously banal allegory of the four seasons that is more see-through than Casper the ghost? Fuck no! There is plenty to praise (the random stage sets, a couple of cute moments, the last ten minutes or so – that would have worked better with more likeable characters), but if this is supposed to be an unrivalled favourite for this year’s Oscars, kiss my ass! No LA-LA here for me, massive disappointment. PS: I’m still thinking why this film didn’t work for me (because I really thought I would like it). The main reason I see is that the initial musical build-up of the relationship doesn’t manage (at least for me) to lay down a sufficiently strong foundation for the feelings in the ambitious non-musical ending. (01/04/2017)