This is the movie I've seen more times in the last years. Surely most people have already seen it. If you have seen it and loved it, you probably coincide with the opinion expressed in this post. If you saw it but did not like it, maybe this post will make you reconsider some aspects. And if you have not seen it (where have you been hiding ?!) I hope this article pushes you to see this great film.

Yes, it's a musical.

I have heard many people say "I don't like musicals, with all that singing". For those who think like that, I say: What a pity! Cinema is art, acting is art, dance is art and music, of course, is also art.

From that combination (when it is done in good shape) it results an artistic product of great value for those of us who love the different artistic manifestations. However, those who don't like so much "singing", I will tell you that La La Land is not Les Miserables (another great movie) where all the dialogue, everything, it's sung. All movies have a soundtrack, so any movie you watch, especially comedies and romances, uses background songs in at least six or seven sequences. Pay attention and you will find out. And that happens in La La Land. The film uses songs within its plot, but it has long sequences of normal dialogues, with the particularity of the musicals in which the songs and dances are played and performed here, masterfully, by the same actors; And does not that prove a major acting challenge for those who in addition to learning the script must learn dance steps and lyrics? The fact that a movie is a musical, then, is a plus and not a but.

The visual

The details of scenography, costumes and photography are taken care of perfectly in this film. The initial sequence shows a traffic jam in a wide avenue and there everything is perfectly chosen: the color of each vehicle, the different models, the colors of the clothes of each character and even their ethnic features; everything aims to show the human diversity that seeks a dream and that comes to LA to pursue it. They are a few dozen cars, but they represent the dreamers of the whole planet. Likewise, throughout the film, no visual detail is random, everything is perfectly taken care of, each costume of each character in each scene, each color of each place, each ray of sun, moonlight, artificial lights, even those objects that seem to be watered in any way, everything, absolutely every single visual element present in the film has been conscientiously chosen.

The plot

Then there's the script, the story. Mia (Emma Stone) and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) are two quite different people who possess a common trait: both have a dream. Mia wants to be a great actress and Sebastian is a musician who wants to open a Jazz Club. They are dreamers in the city of stars. It's not a lightning, but they fall in love and project a life in which they will achieve their respective dreams and stay together. However, not everything goes well. When Sebastian decides to join a band that plays a kind of modern Jazz, Mia rebukes him for having given up his dream. He says that this is called "maturing", that he did it because she wanted him to have a stable job. He doesn't seek to blame her, what happens is that he doesn't say what he really wants to say: I did it for you.

Sebastian took that job in order to improve his quality of life, his and Mia's; and although many debate it, putting it to her, her well-being, above himself. However, Mia doesn't want him to give up what he loves, wants him to take his money and open his club. She wants him to achieve his dream because she loves him. It's her who doesn't accept his resignation. Then, when Mia gives up her desire to be an actress because it hurts her to be rejected again and again, it's Sebastian who doesn't allow it. He goes to find her, reprimands her and takes her to the next audition. And he does it because he loves her, because he believes in her and he's convinced that she will achieve it. And it is very romantic that two people can love each other to the point that, although they stop believing in themselves, they never stop believing in each other.

The ending

After Mia's audition, the film jumps five years forward. She has become a renowned actress and has a family ... but not with Sebastian. Why? Because they were away she filming in Paris and he in LA opening his club? Why did not he go to Paris with her at least for a while? Why did not he wait for her? Did they try, at least, to be together for a while? none of this we can know. What we know is what matters most: they are not together. Perhaps during those years they devoted all their energies to pursue and reach their respective dreams and when they realized, it was too late. However, wasn't Mia who scolded Sebastian not to give up his dream and even designed the logo of the Jazz Club he opened? And it was not Sebastian who sought out Mia and convinced her to attend the audition that changed her life when she had given in? So, achieved their dreams is not somehow honor the love of the other? "I'm always gonna love you" they say to themselves. And they do that, even if they are not together at the end.

The nostalgia and the tribute

Sebastian loves Jazz and does not want to let it die. The society tries to relegate it as a musical genre of an era that has already passed and he says "not on my watch". Love that music and want to rescue it to preserve its greatness, in the middle of a city in which "they worship everything, and they value nothing". Mia dreams of being an actress thanks to her aunt who, in her childhood, made her discover the world of cinema. The final sequence of the movie shows the public what they both think about seeing themselves after five years, what could have been but was not; it is the nostalgia of that life that they could have had together, that dramatic "what would have happened if" that is simply a fantasy. In addition, the film itself is a tribute to classic Hollywood and past times, with black fades, signs in ancient fonts, obvious winks to Singin 'in the rain, a Funny Face, with mentions of Rebel without a cause, of Casablanca; The poster on Mia's bed is the great actress Ingrid Bergman. This film, not only honor the dreamers who come after your dream, it also pays tribute to that city of stars that makes them possible.

Watch it or not?

Do you like movies? Do you like music? Do you like jazz? Do you like romantic movies? Have you enjoyed the cinema classics of the 40s and 50s? Do you have a dream you want to achieve? If your answer is affirmative for at least one of those questions, this movie is for you. Only those who respond negatively to all the previous questions (can someone like that exist?) are exempt from seeing one of the best cinematographic pieces of recent years.
For the excellent work of Damien Chazelle, writer and director of the film, the perfectly cared visual details, a beautiful photograph, the memorable performances of the main couple, the exquisite choreographies of the dance scenes, the renewal of the best of the stories of classic Hollywood cinema, the tribute to art, dreams and dreamers, for me La La Land is a 10/10, I consider it a classic of the cinema and I think that it had to win in the main categories of the Academy Awards where, in my opinion, did not get the recognition that it deserved. You haven't seen it yet? run to see it! Have you seen it? Then tell me what do you expect to see it again?