January 9, 2017

Movie Review: La La Land ***

I love the idea of La La Land, a musical reminiscent of the 30s. I love Ryan Gosling and I love Emma Stone, but I don't love La La Land.
What with all the accolades and awards and all the critics jumping on the La La band wagon I thought this was going to be the world's most entertaining movie, so truly, I was very surprised when half an hour in I was looking at my watch, thinking, okay, get into the story already.
The first act could be cut with no loss of meaning (except it bookends with the final act, but that could be cut too - problem solved). The chemistry between Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling (who are individually great) is lacking, and after the characters finally meet, they break up for such a silly reason that I yawned.
I expected to be amazed by this film. Instead I was underwhelmed.
And yet it won a boatload of Golden Globes, so...you be the judge. If you've already seen it, what did you think?