LaLa Land

Being a Broadway Baby, I live for a good musical movie! LaLa Land is it! Whiplash director Damien Chazelle takes the endearing old-school Hollywood musical, modernizes it with a Los Angeles back drop and drops in the vocal/dance stylings of Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling to add the cherry on top.

As an actress, I could certainly relate to the scenes with Mia (Emma Stone) going to audition after audition experiencing the highs and lows of the business. Reliability was also ever-present as Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) kept watching his dream of being a jazz musician owning a club become derailed by ego, his relationship and unrealistic expectations.

I was actually surprised at the vocal and dance prowess of Gosling and Stone. Their numbers never seemed contrived or unnatural and their voices were adequate for what the film required.

However, it was that opening scene of the freeway that will blow your mind! It literally had my head spinning wondering what time of the day the freeway in LA was shut down to film a music number. The creative team gets mad props for pulling that one-off!

The unexpected lesson of learning that moment a relationship cease to exists with the familiarity we had become use to doesn’t negate the feelings you once had. Once you fall in love with someone, a small part of you will always care about that person whether you want to or not. There is always that moment we may wonder what would’ve happened if the relationship continued. Or that moment, you fantasize about if a different ending to your chapter with that individual.