La La Land

I am being brave. It's deepest, darkest January and the rain here in Manchester can only be described as thick drizzle ... but I'm going out in it. What could warrant such bravery? Escapism, dear reader. A chance to spend two hours bathed in sunlight and swept up in romance. Finally, La La Land is in cinemas and it's here to banish the January blues.

Mia (Emma Stone) dreams of becoming an actress, but the closest she's got so far is working in a coffee shop on the Warner Brother's Lot. Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) has just been fired from his job at a restaurant and yearns to play the piano in his own, old-school jazz bar. Though their first meeting is less than serendipitous, they quickly realise that there is more to life in Hollywood than dream-chasing and embark on an all singing, all dancing romance.

Stone and Gosling have developed great chemistry through their previous roles together and their easiness with one another comes across beautifully during Mia and Seb's fledgling relationship and later, when they've settled into life as a couple. Neither character's ambition ever comes across as over confidence or expectancy - when Mia first tells Seb that she's an actress, you can almost see the self deprecating eye roll hidden under her smile. They are both endearingly passionate and it makes them hugely likeable, Emma Stone in particular just radiates warmth. Her 'Audition' - one of La La Land's most low-key visual moments, leaves her almost totally abandoned on screen, but she's hypnotising, commanding even - and it turns out to be the most memorable scene of the film. Ryan Gosling is utterly charming too - never more so than in an early scene where Seb tries to convince Mia of the genius of jazz. The two of them just ping off each other, and it's a joy to behold.

Of course, both leads had more to do in this film than simply act. As I said before, their romance is quite literally all singing and all dancing. When they finally get around to flirting, they do it through tap-dance, not words. It's an understated routine for sure, neither of them are trained dancers, but it still manages to build to the kind of rousing crescendo that you'd applaud if you saw it on stage. It's silly, it's fun, they're arguing and teasing and it lays the foundation for the rest of their relationship perfectly.

The tap dancing scene - shot against a real LA sunset, is one of countless, visually stunning set pieces in La La Land. In another, Mia passes through a crowded party somewhere in the Hollywood hills, in an explosion of glitter and movement. This film is more colourful than a tin of Quality Street, it's filled with yellows, purples, greens and pinks and the camera just glides through it all, with elegant, sweeping shots. Take a look at some of these BTS videos to see how they achieved a few of the key scenes...
https://davechen.net/2017/01/insane-camera-steadicam-moves-la-la-land/

One thing's for sure - even if this was a silent 

movie, every frame would still sing.

But of course, it's very much not silent. La La Land is a musical, unapologetically so - the songs are spontaneous and the arrangements borrow from the classics like Singing in the Rain, but it may not be the musical you're expecting. With the exception of the opening number 'Another Day of Sun', the other songs are quite low key and the motifs are understated, so you probably won't be humming them after you leave the cinema. Gosling and Stone's naturally fragile vocals feel light and unaffected and it's incredibly refreshing.

So yes, La La Land is a musical, but not in the way that Les Mis and Chicago are, it's a rom-com too, but one that's not afraid to cross into the realms of fantasy; some scenes are imagined, some hypothetical, one even metaphorical - you'll see in the trailer the moment where Mia and Sebastian fly through the air and waltz across a starry sky as they fall in love. A friend of mine who was lucky enough to see a preview, described La La Land as a sparkling cocktail and that sums it up pretty perfectly. It's dazzling but it's delicate.

It thrills me that Damien Chazelle, director of the award winning Whiplash, chose to make a film so seemingly old fashioned. I'm glad La La Land came from him, not just because he's done such a good job but because with someone as critically lauded as him singing the praises of a genre as unfashionable as the musical - it might just make the rest of the industry sit up and listen.