I watched Whiplash a few months back and was amazed at the performance from both Miles Teller and J K Simmons. When seeing that director Damien Chazelle was back with another film I was interested to see what it could be.

While Whiplash was a brutal movie showcasing Teller’s character as someone wanting to prove his worth to Simmons’ anarchist teacher in any shape or form – La La Land is more of an optimists movie of two dreamers who fall in love.

Ryan Gosling plays Seb – a jazz purist who wants to save the genre from extinction, while Emma Stone is Mia, an actress trying to get her first role. The two of them keep bumping into each other and eventually start hitting it off.

Much like 500 Days of Sumer, Chazelle rolls through the various months showing the characters relationship grow. They push each other to pursue their dreams – Seb wants to own his own club, while Mia still aspires to be an actress and begins writing her own show. Unfortunately their aspirations begins getting in their way – and thus begins their downfall.

Ryan Gossling and Emma Stone play the roles fantastically, sharing amazing chemistry and also surprisingly carry the songs off well. They could have easily cast members from other musicals such as Glee, Pitch Perfect etc. but somehow these two just fit. Overall La La Land is a sweet musical that wants to follow the memory of old optimistic classics such as Singin’ in the Rain – in which the characters have large dreams and aspirations and succeed. The only difference is La La Land has a much more modern and realist approach on musicals of old.