However, if you saw them steam up the screen in “Crazy, Stupid, Love” (2011) or “Gangster Squad” (2013), you know Stone and Gosling are most adorable together. While their on-screen chemistry is no shock in “La La Land,” you’ll be pleasantly surprised how each rises to the challenge of song and dance. Can both fulfill their dreams, or is love enough? And what if they had to choose between the two?įor Stone and Gosling, it’s been a 15-year climb from fan favorites to critical darlings: “Remember the Titans” (2000), “The Notebook” (2004), “Half Nelson” (2006), “Superbad” (2007), “Lars and The Real Girl” (2007), “Zombieland” (2009), “Blue Valentine” (2010), “Easy A” (2010), “Drive” (2011), “The Help” (2011), “The Ides of March” (2011), “Magic in the Moonlight” (2012), “The Place Beyond the Pines” (2012), “The Amazing Spider-Man” (2012), “Birdman” (2014) and “The Big Short” (2015).

Present-day Los Angeles is the perfect setting for this Technicolor romance between two young dreamers: Mia (Emma Stone), an aspiring actress rejected from countless auditions while hoping for her big break, and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), a struggling jazz pianist hoping to open his own jazz club. No, what “La La Land” has done is revive a classic style of musical, where vibrant dances gladly give way to avant-garde dream ballets, reviving a lost art-form defined in Hollywood by Stanley Donen’s “Singin’ in the Rain” (1952) and overseas in Jacques Demy’s “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” (1964). It’s not that “La La Land” revived the genre itself musicals resurged at the turn of the millennium with animated gems (“Beauty and the Beast,” “Frozen”), live-action flicks (“Moulin Rouge,” “Chicago”), Broadway hits (“Rent,” “Wicked,” “Hamilton”) and TV specials (“Grease Live,” “Hairspray Live”). With that single piece of dialogue, writer/director Damien Chazelle (“Whiplash”) lays out his own filmmaking challenge then proceeds to shatter it, creating a throwback musical that’s gloriously nostalgic yet entirely fresh, resurrecting a staple of cinema’s Golden Age for a new generation.

WASHINGTON - “How are you going to be a revolutionary if you’re such a traditionalist? You hold onto the past, but is about the future.” Business & Finance Click to expand menu.įebru| WTOP's Jason Fraley reviews 'La La Land' ( Jason Fraley).

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