Review: Chazelle's 'La La Land' is a Joyous Return to Old School Cinema

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“It’s conflict and it’s compromise, and it’s very, very exciting.” That’s how Sebastian, the character played by Ryan Gosling in La La Land, describes jazz, his obvious infatuation with the genre of music seeping into the actor’s delivery. It’s a description that could just as easily be used for the concepts of life and love and the way writer/director Damien Chazelle handles them in his film. La La Land is never as aggressive as Chazelle’s first film, Whiplash, nor does it reach the sincere depths of that film. The intensity works its way into the film in different ways, though, the musical structure leading the viewer through Chazelle’s story of failure and success in Los Angeles with joyous results. For so many different reasons La La Land is every bit the success that Whiplash was, chief among these the undeniable impact the film, and music, has on you. ›››

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