La La Land (2016)
"This is the dream! It's conflict and it's compromise, and it's very, very exciting!"
- Sebastian -
La La Land is one of the movie I really wanna watch but I don't wanna take a high expectation as I always disappointing. As the movie started, it's surprisingly giving us something beautiful and fun with beautiful music, colorful costumes, and fun things. Then, the two main characters meet; Mia Dolan (Emma Stone) and Sebastian Wilder (Ryan Gosling). Mia is an aspiring actress and also a studio-barista. Sebastian is a jazz pianist. Both of them are struggling to make their hopes and dreams come true. Is the story as simple as we thought? Nope. Though it's just a simple premise, it's more than that. Damien Chazelle, as a director, knows how to create a great concept of this movie by using all elements and fit them all into one.
Though you don't like musicals, I bet you will like this movie. It's definitely hard finding something like this nowadays; kind of something rare. It feels like we are watching classic movie from the past. Music by Justin Hurwitz is completely a perfect part of this movie. It's so not easy to forget the song lists here such as Another Day of Sun, Someone In The Crowd, Audition (The Fools Who Dream) or City of Stars that has a big impression during the show. Even, the song's still remain in our mind maybe; as I hummed it after the movie ends. The music itself is just not a complement of the movie only, but also as a medium of storytelling and as a whole packaging of the movie. Not just the music, the choreography from Mandy Moore is also the best part of the movie itself. See how Gosling and Stone dance together in some of the scenes. It's wonderful. And it become perfect with the great cinematography from Linus Sandgren who make every shot is like a magical thing that make us fly away. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone is perfect cast for this movie. How the two of them have a great chemistry here is truly amazing thing. What surprise me is that Gosling and Stone sing the songs in the movie by themselves. Even, Gosling learnt to play piano to take a part of his character.
As the tagline itself, "Here's to fools who dream", La La Land is a movie about dream. But it's okay. Everyone can having a dream. It's free!. Though reality is cruel. As the main characters who have big dream and hope and they always support each other, though they also have to struggling facing the cruel reality. It's not a big deal. Exploring the joy and pain of pursuing your dreams are more important. Make your dreams come true even though there's always something you have to sacrifice. Well, La La Land is above my expectation. I always smile during the show and make me feel so happy and sad in the same time. And I love the ending. I still can't move on from this great movie. Big thanks to Chazelle who doesn't ruin the last part of this movie as typically Hollywood movie nowadays. For trivia, Indonesia is also becomes a part of the conversation between the characters in the movie. If you don't watch it yet, just watch it now. You won't regret it.
Title: La La Land | Genre: Drama, Musical | Director: Damien Chazelle | Music: Justin Hurwitz | Cinematography: Linus Sandgren | Release date: August 31, 2016 (Venice Film Festival), December 9, 2016 (United States) | Running time: 128 minutes | Country: United States | Language: English | Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend, Rosemarie DeWitt | IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes
