La La Land? More like Blah Blah Land - An Overrated Wannabe Musical

I went to see La La Land this weekend. I’m late to the party, I know, but given the many accolades that the film is receiving and the fact that my boyfriend and I are both musical fans, we thought we’d save it for a Valentine’s Day treat. I’m sorry to say that we were both yawning in our seats.

La La Land follows the lives of a struggling actress, Emma Stone, and a struggling jazz musician, Ryan Gosling, as they both attempt to achieve their dreams whilst maintaining their relationship. It is advertised as an homage to movie musicals of old and people certainly seem to like it. The film has been nominated for 14 Academy Awards (tying with Titanic, 1997, and All about Eve, 1950, for the record), 7 Golden Globes and 11 BAFTAs. So far, it has won all categories it was nominated for at the Golden Globes and 5 of the categories it was nominated for at the BAFTAs. Categories include Best Film, Best Actress, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography and Best Director.

Now, I’m not saying the film is completely awful. There were some really fantastic examples of visual imagery and I believe the award of Best Cinematography is thoroughly deserved. Best Original Score too! I still have ‘City of Stars’ running around my head and escaping through my lips occasionally. My issues lie in the storyline and the casting.

Let’s start with the storyline. To put it simply, there wasn’t much of one. At least, not one gripping enough to last two hours. Both main characters (and, let’s be honest, no other character really managed to get a line in edgeways with the film so narrowly focused on Stone and Gosling) followed pretty much the exact same development arc. They both start out unhappy because their dream is proving difficult to reach. They both have an opportunity which could take them closer to where they wanted to be, she with writing her own play, he by being invited into a successful band. Then they fall out with each other to focus on their own goal and both eventually make it. The only climax of emotion was when they each had to decide whether it was worth continuing to strive for their life-dream or not.

Talking of emotion, does Ryan Gosling have any?

For someone who’s life is supposed to be driven entirely by his passion for jazz, he doesn’t sound all that excited when he gets to talking about it. He didn’t seem best pleased to be paired up with Emma Stone either. Despite her best efforts, I didn’t feel a connection between the two of them and that was predominantly down to the sense that he just wasn’t bothered in the slightest. But sure! Give him the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Music or Comedy.

Finally, I couldn’t end this review without talking about the fact that this film was supposed to be a musical. You’d think they’d cast people who can actually sing and dance for leading parts in a musical wouldn’t you? I certainly would. There are people who spend their lives training to do this, people who can act and dance and sing. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling were obviously cast purely for the sake of having a couple of big names on the posters. The opening number, one of my favourites, featured some great dancers and singers but you never saw them again!

Rotten Tomatoes states that the critic consensus is that “La La Land breathes new life into a bygone genre”. Well, I’m sorry but if you think that La La Land is the epitome of modern musicals you are sorely mistaken. Have you seen the following that Hamilton has? Musicals are far from extinct and La La Land is certainly not the genre’s knight in shining armour.

2/5 stars