Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by tunenut (A) on January 14, 2017 at 21:09:41

In Reply to: RE: 'La La Land': Monstrously Mediocre posted by Billy Wonka on January 12, 2017 at 20:51:20

So it got a lot of critical buzz, but I heard a critic I like say the leads have no chemistry, cannot sing or dance and the songs are forgettable.

My experience was quite different. The songs are quite memorable. If Gosling and Stone do not have professional singers' voices, that's part of the design of who they are. I thought their dancing was fine- no not Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire, but this is a different kind of movie.

I actually enjoyed the opening musical number quite a bit, but that was about the only traditional big musical production number. The rest of the music was small and intimate.

This is a tribute to the Los Angeles/Hollywood of movie history, filmed to show LA as a gauzy fantasy, with main characters who live for old music on record players and old movies on big screens. And a tribute to the old and out-of-style format of the movie musical.

I know the director called the Umbrellas of Cherbourg his favorite movie, and one who is familiar with that one cannot help but notice the great similarities, which I will not spoil. I really enjoyed the time spent watching this, and will certainly see it again.