January Pick: La La Land

If you've waited to see La La Land, which is being called a "musical masterpiece" that hearkens back to those wonderful all-dancing all-singing films so many of us love, your reward is to see it with your fellow Movie Club members. 

We'll do so on Tuesday, January 10, at the Yonge/Dundas Cineplex for the 1:20 screening (meeting, as always, near the box office about 20 minutes earlier). Here are the deets about a flick that's being touted for Oscar gold this year.


SYNOPSIS:  Director Damien Chazelle, who made his first big splash with Whiplash, has his characters "dare to swoon the old-fashioned way," as Variety's review described the movie. 

“La La Land,” the review goes on to say, "is set in contemporary Los Angeles, but its heart and soul are rooted in the past, and so are its characters: Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), a sleek jazz pianist in silk ties who’s a cranky purist about what he listens to, what he plays, and where he plays it, and Mia (Emma Stone), an aspiring actress and playwright who’s deep into the magic of the old movie stars, though she’s a tad less obsessive about her fixation. 

"She works as a barista on the Warner Bros. lot and is always cutting out of work to get to auditions; if one of them ever resulted in her landing an acting job, she’d probably be ecstatic no matter what it was. These two meet, scuffle, and fall in love, and they do it through a series of song-and-dance numbers, composed by Justin Hurwitz (the lyrics are by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul), that are tenderly shocking in their catchy anachronistic beauty. The film’s score is such a melodious achievement that there are moments it evokes the bittersweet majesty of George Gershwin." You can read the entire Variety review at: http://variety.com/2016/film/reviews/la-la-land-review-venice-ryan-gosling-emma-stone-1201846576/.

TRAILER:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pdqf4P9MB8