The 74th Golden Globes aired this past Sunday and finally gave credit to the real best movie of 2016. La La Land broke a record of winning a grand total of seven golden globes for all categories it was nominated for. Not only did this film sweep the Globes, but director Damien Chazelle (age 31) is the youngest director to win the title of best director in Globe history. After his previous success with Whiplash in 2014, and his recent success with La La Land, Damien truly is a prodigy director who deserves every recognition he received. His films are a work of art that can be read on many levels, which primarily contributes to why La La Land proved to be a great success among the professional film community.

Before viewing this movie, I found myself listening to the soundtrack and was astonished. Typically, musical soundtracks give away the whole story and plot of the film. Contrary to what is typical of film adapted musicals, La La Land's soundtrack gives nothing away. Instead, the soundtrack gives just enough information to make its audience create theories in reference to the progression of the film's story. In reality, critiquing the soundtrack seems a strange place to start when reviewing this film, but the music is just as important as the film itself. Just based off of the soundtrack, it is clear that this film is not a standard musical. Most musical soundtracks still include filler dialogue between songs, and this is an aspect that is absent from this particular soundtrack. Keeping this in mind, the absence of filler dialogue implies that there is a lot that happens between songs, and communicates to audiences that this is something completely new and different from what they are accustomed to viewing on the big screen. To focus more on the music itself, the songs are masterful. Every song tells a story, but intricately intertwines various bars and chords to overlap each other throughout. Upon careful listening of the music, one is taken on a journey with Mia and Sebastian throughout the album. Furthermore, in translation to the film itself, the music embodies its own character. The music takes on the persona of a suave gentlemen who finds himself reflecting on better times. He lives and breathes every fabric of Hollywood, herself, and what she once stood for. Furthermore, to this day, he is still proud of his home. His presence seeps through the division of quick moving frames to walk a journey beside Mia and Sebastian, and he can only smile for they are meant to personify the meaning of the starry eyed dreamers in Hollywood and beyond.

Before analyzing the movie, it is important to understand the basic setting of this film. La La Land primarily takes place in Hollywood, and follows Mia (Emma Stone) as she struggles to obtain her dream of becoming an actress. During her journey, she crosses paths with Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) who is also chasing his own dream of opening up a jazz club. Both characters are from different walks of life but are drawn together by their ability to dream in the artistic world. Both Mia and Sebastian, in some way, created each other. Mia began as a timid but driven woman in her art. She cared what other people thought of her, as typical with the world of acting, but still had her goal in mind. Sebastian, on the other hand, began his journey not caring what anyone thought of him, not even his sister could change his mindset. He knew what he wanted, and was determined to preserve what jazz was meant to be. Sebastian was entirely focused on encouraging people to stop and listen to the music, not allowing it to be background music to fill in empty spaces. By meeting Sebastian, Mia slowly began to obtain this mindset of learning to understand other art forms, while also learning to not care about what anyone thinks of her. Mia and Sebastian represent the classic cinematic couple that every audience finds itself slowly falling in love with. They play off of each other incredibly well, and seeing these two individuals fall in love, as well as watch them pursue their dreams, is a wonderful thing to watch. Naturally, their romance takes many twists and turns, but the end to their story is logical (as conveyed in various scenes that I do not wish to spoil).

Moving away from character analysis, the cinematography is beautiful. Many scenes are captured in a wide shot to show Hollywood in its entirety. Not only are the wide shots effective, but tracking and continuous shots are also used effectively in musical numbers to carry the viewer through each and every moment. Scenes of this nature create a great deal of depth and emphasize a realistic world. Furthermore, these shots and the limited musical numbers provide emphasis on certain aspects of the story, and allow the viewer to imagine themselves walking into this story. Many musicals make the mistake of inserting as many songs as possible just for the sake of it being a musical. La La Land is a musical in its own right, but it does recognize that it is a film and not a stage production. Despite its focus on being a film, there are moments where it does imitate the stage. Certain moments of the film are emphasized by creating a spotlight on certain characters or actions, which are effective in drawing the viewer's attention to that action. Furthermore, there were also actions performed by extras that are signature to the stage that occurred to also provide emphasis on certain moments. Not only do these aspects draw the viewer's attention, but it also creates a subtle tribute to stage production as a whole. Keeping this in mind, La La Land does not leave its roots behind but simply builds off of them to create a better adaptation for the big screen. As previously mentioned, the soundtrack itself does aide in storytelling, and provides an interesting way for the main characters to convey their thoughts and feelings.

In reference to the overall story, La La Land does not just pay tribute to old Hollywood, but it also focuses on an individual's ability to dream. The initial takeaway of this film focuses more on the work of Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. Both actors put in a significant amount of time in order to learn how to dance, sing, and effectively perform for their roles. Not only did Gosling have to learn how to dance with his costar, but he also had to learn how to play one of the most complex instruments to exist: the piano. Damien wanted the actor who played Sebastian to actually know how to play piano in order to film scenes that focused specifically on the actor playing. He wanted the audience to believe the actor was actually playing, and Gosling truly did achieve this. On a personal note for him, he observes his role as Sebastian to be one of the most fulfilling roles he has ever taken part of. Both Stone and Gosling really did capture what it meant to be an actor in old Hollywood, and had to pull inspiration from those who dazzled the screen long before them. In old Hollywood, actors were expected to not only be able to act, but to also sing and dance well. Both actors achieved this ancient stigma, and created a new and fresh performance in a film set in the modern day.

The set of La La Land, to a more keen audience, was pure eye candy. Many aspects of the set were pieces of older films that have made their mark on over decades of cinematic art. There are many aspects of this film that bleed nostalgia for days long since past in Hollywood. Regardless of the meaning on La La Land's surface, this film's underlying meaning focuses more on those who have the capacity to dream. This film provides a critique for those who have dreamed for so long that they lose themselves, and find themselves broken by the majority of the world. Not only does it draw attention to those who break under the pressure of the world, but it also shows two very distinct tales that expose those who were broken but stand up to obtain all they ever hoped for. Both tales expose similar yet different endings that would serve as superb analysis in a spoiler laden review. Without spoiling the plot, there is a very important scene towards the end that explores what could have been and focuses on what the audience wanted to happen, but shows the consequence of what the audience desired of the story. This scene is genius, as well as one specific cinematic comparison that honestly spoils the course of Mia and Sebastian's relationship.

There are very few flaws with this movie, but I will say that this film is not completely perfect. There are certain characters that appeared to have a larger role in this film, as shown in trailers, but had little to no influence on the plot itself. This is a very small flaw simply for the reason that these characters served merely as opposition to the protagonists' journey in pursuit of their dreams. One character, in particular, is barely in the film but still manages to completely alter the course of Mia and Sebastian's relationship.

On a more personal note, I believe La La Land is a pure work of art that can be enjoyed by all. I am certain this film will change the course of future big screen musicals, and will also provide the groundwork to produce better film adaptations of musicals. Every part of this film is beautiful, and is sure to draw a bittersweet emotion upon its conclusion. If you have not seen this movie already, I highly recommend viewing it. In the instance you have seen it, go see it again!

Score: 9.5/10