Almost everything you need to know about “La La Land” you learn in its first scene. A fluid camera moves between bumper-to-bumper cars on a Los Angeles highway, different songs from different radio stations floating through the air. One woman hops out of her car and begins to sing and dance in the road, and soon she’s joined by everyone. The camera soars and spins and dips on all these LA dreamers—despite the Southern California diversity, everyone’s story is more or less the same—and never cuts away. All at once, writer/director Damien Chazelle lets you know this story isn’t new, but he’s going to have a hell of a time telling it to you.
And you know the story: Mia (Emma Stone) is an actress and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) is a musician, both struggling with the Hollywood scene. You already know they fall in love, but it’s how the story is told that makes “La La Land” special. As a musical, it simultaneously pays homage and breathes new life into one of the most traditional forms of cinema. It avoids feeling familiar or derivative by committing to every choice knowingly. As Mia gives a wrenching audition performance, Chazelle slowly zooms on her face but leaves enough room for us to see someone signaling to the casting agents in the background. It’s a cynical insider’s view of this world—you’re not watching the musical from the theater, but from the stage.
But the cynicism is necessary to hold the truly dreamy visuals and emotions that lift “La La Land” clear off the ground. Chazelle’s camera work is masterful, becoming one with the dizzying choreography of its dancers. The story itself is a bit of a dance, weaving two people together and stressing the importance of timing before coming back to a moment heavy with importance. Deliberate and magical, everything is supremely felt.
If there’s a flaw in “La La Land,” it’s that it’s a musical with two leads who aren’t singers. Gosling and Stone have perfectly fine voices but aren’t anything to write home about. But should anyone suggest they could have been swapped out, I insist there’s a rat-a-tat-tat to their dialogue and chemistry that couldn’t have been achieved by any other pair. Plus, as Sebastian says when he explains jazz to Mia, “You can’t hear it, you have to see it.” Singing isn’t the main event; it’s just one more thing that helps Stone and Gosling round out affecting, nuanced performances.
“La La Land” feels like a perfect movie. Turns out that’s all that really matters.
4 stars (out of four)
@lchval | laurenchval@redeyechicago.com
