Damien Chazelle’s new film La La Land premiered at Venice Film Festival last night to rave reviews. The award-winning Whiplash writer/director’s new romantic musical comedy featuring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone has impressed critics and audiences, many of whom now believe it looks set for Oscars consideration.
“Chazelle does for musicals what Tarantino did for guns,” CineVue tweeted after the film’s screening, while the Telegraph’s chief film critic, Robbie Collin tweeted, “I’m honestly crying with happiness. That film no-one makes any more? Damien Chazelle just made it.”
Damien has long wanted to dust off the musical genre. “I remember when I saw Umbrellas Of Cherbourg for the first time,” he told Deadline. “Of course I saw it on a crappy VHS tape. It didn’t matter. I had never seen a musical like that, a musical that was just as kind of high-flying as the sort of MGM style that it was borrowing from, but dealing with both the highs and lows, so to speak, trying to actually kind of reflect a somewhat more realistic version of life and how things don’t always work out in life. There’s something just so beautiful and poetic about it, and it’s still probably my favorite movie ever. So I feel like [La La Land] kind of started there.”
The film, about an eternally aspiring actress and an uncompromising jazz musician struggling to make ends meet in a city known for crushing hopes and breaking hearts, has sung and danced its way into critics hearts.
Deadline’s Pete Hammond wrote, “Whether it is a dazzling song and dance opening set in a massive traffic jam on an L.A. freeway, or a spectacular sequence with Gosling and Stone flying high into the skies of the Griffith Observatory the musical numbers soar with their own vibrancy and urgency. We live in hard times but this is a movie worth savoring, something that entertains, enlightens and makes us feel good about being alive. It is not to be missed by anyone who still cares for the future of the American musical.”
Todd McCarthy at The Hollywood Reporter said, “All the same, for Chazelle to be able to pull this off the way he has is something close to remarkable. The director’s feel for a classic but, for all intents and purposes, discarded genre format is instinctive and intense; he really knows how to stage and frame dance and lyrical movement, to transition smoothly from conventional to musical scenes, to turn naturalistic settings into alluring fantasy backdrops for set pieces, and to breathe new life into what many would consider cobwebbed cliches.”
The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw gave the film five stars. He wrote, “The director of Whiplash delivers a musical romance that rushes from first love to heartache via showtunes, love songs and free jazz. Propelled by charming performances from its leads, it’s a sweet-natured drama that’s full of bounce,” and closing out his review by saying, “La La Land is such a happy, sweet-natured movie – something to give you a vitamin-D boost of sunshine.”
“Fans of musicals will adore this sparkling cinematic love letter,” wrote Alonso Duralde, TheWrap‘s lead movie critic. Adding, “Chazelle’s skillfully presents Los Angeles itself as both fantasy and reality… The musical is as malleable and eclectic a genre as any other, and Chazelle reminds us how effectively it can be applied to intimate moments as well as huge ones.”
Of course it’s not just Damien’s whip-smart writing and nostalgic direction that are being praised. The film’s acting, cinematography, lighting, set design, and score are all being lauded. Deadline summed up exactly why awards may beckon, “A more perfect film to launch Oscar season you could not find, as La La Land is not only is a love letter to movies, to movie musicals, to romance, and to Los Angeles, but it is also an ode to people with a dream.”
La La Land will be released in theaters this December.
