A few years ago I remember this movie was all the talk and it was all anyone was talking about. With 14 Oscar nominations and 6 wins, the movie was very successful and it turned into one of those movies that I always said I would watch but never really put in the time to do. This week I was free and decided that it was the day to finally watch it.
My favorite YouTuber who I have mentioned on this blog before, Best Dressed (aka Ashley) was a film major at UCLA and made a video about her favorite movies and she included La La Land on her list. Because of this, I kind of prioritized this movie on my personal list of movies to watch.
I have heard from a lot of people that La La Land is a Hollywood movie basically applauding Hollywood and quite frankly, yes it was. The story follows Mia, an aspiring actress, and Sebastian, a jazz musician, as they work towards their career goals and form a relationship.
In high school, we could pick majors and mine was visual arts so I will say that I really appreciate a movie with great visual elements and I really think that La La Land did a good job in this category. I found this movie to have a really strong and pleasing aesthetic. The setting to the costumes I honestly thought was amazing. Even Emma Stone’s red hair I thought fit the aesthetic really well. I love the use of bright colors throughout the movie. It managed to be really colorful but not overly bright and obnoxious. It still looked very elegant. I really enjoyed the old Hollywood look that they successfully were able to achieve.
If I am being completely honest, I thought the plot was okay. I didn’t feel very invested in the characters or story in general. For me, I didn’t find it amazing or super interesting to follow. I don’t really know what else to say about it in that regard. I did find the ending to be pleasing and realistic in a sense. I liked how they didn’t have to push the romance and I also thought Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone have good chemistry together and seemed as real as a fake couple could be.
Overall I found that the film was very well made, the actors did a good job and the aesthetic was beautiful but it lacked in the plot itself in my opinion. It was worth it to watch but it also didn’t have that much impact on me at all. I didn’t really like how it was a movie about Hollywood giving itself a high five but I still enjoyed the old Hollywood appearance of the film. I would give it a 6.5/10 but I blame much of its points of how well made it was and how it looked. If it was plot alone I would probably give it a much lower score, maybe a 4.5-5/10.
Images used:
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I also feel like I am one of the few people who has never seen La La Land. I remember everyone talking about it and all the awards it won, but it isn’t really the kind of movies I like to watch. I liked how you talked about the visuals of the movie because when watching a movie that is usually something I don’t really think that much about. Even though you said the plot wasn’t that great, I like Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling so I might watch it!