Rent La La Land (2016)
3.3 of 5 from 783 ratings
2h 3min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Winner of 6 Academy Awards including Best Director for writer/director Damien Chazelle, and winner of a record-breaking 7 Golden Globe Awards, "La La Land" is more than the most acclaimed movie of the year - it's a cinematic treasure for the ages that you'll fall in love with again and again. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling star as Mia and Sebastian, an actress and a jazz musician pursuing their Hollywood dreams - and finding each other - in a vibrant celebration of hope, dreams and love.
- Actors:
- Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Rosemarie DeWitt, Amiée Conn, Terry Walters, Thom Shelton, Cinda Adams, Callie Hernandez, Jessica Rothe, Sonoya Mizuno, J.K. Simmons, Claudine Claudio, Jason Fuchs, D.A. Wallach, Trevor Lissauer, Olivia Hamilton, Anna Chazelle, Marius De Vries, Finn Wittrock, Josh Pence
- Directors:
- Damien Chazelle
- Producers:
- Fred Berger, Gary Gilbert, Jordan Horowitz, Marc Platt
- Voiced By:
- Ian Wolfe
- Writers:
- Damien Chazelle
- Others:
- Marc Platt, Andy Nelson, Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz, Tom Cross, Mary Zophres, David Wasco, Sandy Reynolds Wasco, Justin Paul, Linus Sandgren, Justin Hurwitz, Mildred Iatrou Morgan, Ai-Ling Lee, Steve A. Morrow, Benj Pasek
- Studio:
- Lionsgate Films
- Genres:
- Drama, Music & Musicals, Romance
- Collections:
- 10 Films to Watch if You Like A Star Is Born, 10 Films to Watch if You Like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, 10 Films to Watch if You Like The Greatest Showman, 2017, A History of Films about Film: Part 2, A History of Cinemas in Films, Award Winners, BAFTA Nominations Competition 2023, BAFTA Nominations Competition 2024, CinemaParadiso.co.uk Through Time, Films to Watch If You Like..., Getting to Know..., Getting to Know: Ryan Gosling, Holidays Film Collection, Introducing the EGOT Crowd, Lions on the Lido, Oscar Nominations Competition 2024, Oscar's Two-Time Club, Oscars: Winners & Losers, Romantic Film Pairings for Valentine's Day, A Brief History of Film..., Top 10 Best Picture Follow-Ups, Top 10 Screen Kisses (1896-1979), Top Films
- Awards:
2017 BAFTA Best Cinematography
2017 Oscar Best Cinematography
2017 Oscar Best Production Design
2017 Oscar Best Music Original Score
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 15/05/2017
- Run Time:
- 128 minutes
- Languages:
- English Audio Description Dolby Digital 2.0, English Dolby Atmos, English Dolby Digital Late Night Listening 2.0, French Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
- Subtitles:
- English, English Hard of Hearing, Spanish
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 2.55:1
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Audio Commentary with Director Damien Chazelle and Composer Justin Hurwitz
- Another Day of Sun: They Closed Down a Freeway
- La La Land's Great Party
- Ryan Gosling: Piano Student
- Before Whiplash: Damien Chazelle's Passion Project
- La La Land's Love Letter to Los Angeles
- The Music of 'La La Land'
- John Legend's Acting Debut
- The Look Of Love: Designing 'La La Land'
- Ryan and Emma: Third Time's the Charm
- Epilogue: The Romance of the Dream
- Damien and Justin Sing: The Demos
- Marketing Gallery
- Song Selection
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 15/05/2017
- Run Time:
- 128 minutes
- Languages:
- English Audio Description, English Dolby Atmos, English Dolby Digital Late Night Listening 2.0, French Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
- Subtitles:
- English, English Hard of Hearing, Spanish
- DVD Regions:
- Region 2
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 2.55:1
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Audio Commentary with Director Damien Chazelle and Composer Justin Hurwitz
- Another Day of Sun: They Closed Down a Freeway
- La La Land's Great Party
- Ryan Gosling: Piano Student
- Before Whiplash: Damien Chazelle's Passion Project
- La La Land's Love Letter to Los Angeles
- The Music of 'La La Land'
- John Legend's Acting Debut
- The Look Of Love: Designing 'La La Land'
- Ryan and Emma: Third Time's the Charm
- Epilogue: The Romance of the Dream
- Damien and Justin Sing: The Demos
- Marketing Gallery
- Song Selection
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Reviews (20) of La La Land
Forgettable - La La Land review by AS
Have the writer and director ever seen a musical? Has the composer ever heard a show tune? This is an old-as-the-hills cliché with not a spark of originality. The production is utterly tepid; there is no panache; there is no zing. Gosling and Stone can dance a bit but neither of them can sing: they look like drama class students doing their best- which isn't good enough; and they have no interpersonal chemistry whatsoever. Above all, there isn't a single number anyone will recall five minutes after leaving the cinema. Remember, the people who voted this an Oscar live in la la land.
6 out of 6 members found this review helpful.
So-so Land - La La Land review by WS
I enjoyed this a bit more than I was expecting to. The cinematography and production design is gorgeous, I found the characters relatable, Emma Stone's performance was very affecting and I felt she deserved her Oscar. Ryan Gosling doesn't dazzle to the same extent but again I was pleasantly surprised. I'd mainly seen him playing amiable rogues or tough guys (Ides of March, Place Beyond the Pines, Half-Nelson) and was sceptical of his being a convincing romantic lead, but was won over and thought the two of them made a very nice on-screen couple.
The dance routines were just okay (in Hollywood's Golden Age, I guess producers would have looked for dancers who could act rather than actors who could be taught to dance - clearly not the case here) - and the songs ranged from acceptable to quite good. The plot is well-structured but rather conventional.
But the real reason I can't give it more than three stars is this: the different elements just don't gel together. It doesn't ever really feel like a musical; it feels like a romantic drama with a few song and dance routines plonked into it. Some might say that's all a musical ever is. But in order to work, screen musicals need to have a sort of staginess or contrived artificiality to them - you don't want excessive naturalism because that just makes it look even more blatantly artificial when the characters break into song or start hoofing. And in the non-musical portions of La La Land, the style of direction and dialogue are quite naturalistic, and so the song and dance routines are bound to seem ever so slightly incongruous.
At one point, Ryan Gosling's character Sebastian, having earlier stated his passionate belief in the beauty and profundity of jazz as an art form, joins a touring band playing a sort of 80s-style jazz-inflected pop rock with as much likeness to true jazz as Dairylea has to real cheese. The band leader, Keith, tells Sebastian that jazz needs to change in order to survive, and that there's no point in "keeping it real" anymore if the kids won't listen to it. This may be intended as a criticism of the modern philistine obsession with making culture "accessible". But it inadvertently highlights what's wrong with this movie. Just as Keith's combo is producing jazz for people who don't like jazz, La La Land is a musical for people who aren't sure whether they like musicals.
4 out of 5 members found this review helpful.
Boring. Sorry. - La La Land review by IM
Flashy but empty. Forgettable characters, boring music. Two hours of our lives we will not get back. You want a musical, try Cabaret.
2 out of 2 members found this review helpful.
Critic review
La La Land review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso
I came out of La La Land with the biggest of smiles for a musical I never expected to win me over so easily. I knew Damien Chazelle was a great director with a penchant for jazz, but I didn’t expect him to deliver such a high-energy musical. I knew Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone were great talents, but I never expected them to have such charm and dance moves. I knew that composer Justin Hurwitz could compose some great music as he did in Chazelle’s Whiplash, but not this good. You think you’ve seen it all and can predict it all, only for something like La La Land to come along that blows everything else out of the water.
Right from the first scene, Chazelle makes his musical world known as one where anything can happen. A traffic jam soon turns into a song and dance number where all the drivers can break out into song and become marvelous dancers. Open up the back of a truck and you can find a band just waiting to chime in with the chorus. This opening scene doesn’t feature the key characters, but establishes the tone well. We then meet our two leads: the barista struggling to be an actor Mia (Emma Stone) and the jazz musician hoping to land his own club, Sebastian (Ryan Gosling). They meet on the highway, but don’t connect until later when Mia overhears him playing the piano. Their romance soon blossoms as they both begin to take interest in their passions, sharing their love for their crafts as much as they have for each other.
In classic musical fashion, the relationship of Mia and Sebastian develops over song and dance numbers. Mia just happens to carry tap shoes on her way to the car, realizing a dance could break out at any moment. The two of them later sneak into a planetarium where they begin to float and dance among the stars. There is a whimsical energy to their relationship as they fancy each other and admire each other’s passion. Mia wants to put on a one-man show while Sebastian continues to push for his club. But as time goes on and bills stack up, the two begin making sacrifices they believe may not be worth it. Their dreams of both being successful and a couple may not come true.
There’s a solid balance of whimsical musical numbers and a relatable relationship to compose a picture that is as thoughtful as it is dazzling. For every moment where Gosling and Stone deliver a toe-tapping number, there’s another where her plight is believable. She wants to be an actor, but there are too many other girls with similar talent. She wants to stage a one-man show, but barely anyone shows up. At the same time, Gosling faces the big challenge of deciding to sell out for Stone or keep fighting for his dream. Their frustrations to do the right thing reach a boiling point in a great moment of dramatic tension as they feud over dinner with a record player finishing its play.
The music is beyond enjoyable. Weeks after the screening and I still have Another Day of Sun etched into my mind, its melody a mere whistle away. Gosling’s somber solo City of Stars is a wonder little song to mumble when on your own or finding yourself quietly anxious for something on the horizon. Even the lyricaly devoid musical numbers are just as earworm worthy for the powerful instrumentals by Hurwitz.
La La Land pays tribute to not only old Hollywood musicals, but also Hollywood in general. Mia and Sebastian gab about old movies as they walk around a studio, pointing out where classic movies were filmed and strolling around sets currently filming. The two have a date at an art-house theater playing Rebel Without a Cause and are so inspired by the shot of a historic planetarium that they later seek it out and venture inside after hours. The song and dance number between Gosling and Stone at dusk echoes the tone of a Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly musical. True, neither Gosling nor Stone have the flawless moves of such Hollywood legends, but they do have the same amount of energy and charisma.
There’s a lot to love about La La Land, but what won me over most was its theme about dreams. Stone has a solo number for an audition in which her lyrics dedicate towards the dreamers, those that succeed and those that fail. What an amazing inspiration to leave the theater with. I’ve never been a big fan of musicals, but La La Land has so much energy, charisma, visual dazzle and memorable music that it was impossible to resist such a joyful spectacle. Call me gaga for La La if you must.