QUICK SUMMARY
The brilliant musical drama La La Land is coming to Amazon Prime Video. Starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, it arrives on February 22nd.
It's a blessing and a curse that Ryan Gosling was in Barbie. It was a blessing because he nailed the role of Ken in a superb movie, but a curse that when you think of him singing you now conjure up visions of "I'm Just Ken" rather than his performances in La La Land.
In this 2016 reunion with his Crazy, Stupid, Love co-star Emma Stone, the two both sing live - something that's unheard of in modern Hollywood. But then this movie is a love letter to a different era. Luckily you don't have to go to the 'Talkies' to see it as it will be streaming on Prime Video from February 22nd.
Our two leads are old-fashioned dreamers, hustling in LA for a chance at the big time. Gosling's Seb is a talented Jazz pianist (of course he can play the piano in real life - he's perfect!), while Stone's Mia is an aspiring actress. After a series of chance encounters go to waste, the two finally get close and start to push each other to achieve their goals.
What elevates this film, much like the singing, is that it balances both the glamour of Hollywood and dreaming with realism. The vocals aren't dubbed and autotuned, and Seb and Mia aren't perfect. In a brilliant opening, we first meet the two stuck in LA traffic with Seb feeling the road rage flowing in Mia's direction. Hardly a traditional meet cute. A quick word must go to the supporting cast too, when you have both John Legend and J.K. Simmons then you know it's going to be special.
You may remember La La Land as the film that incorrectly won Best Picture at the Oscars (it was instead given to Moonlight) but it also would have been a worthy winner. Director Damien Chazelle became the youngest person to win the Best Director Oscar (just 32!) and Stone won Best Actress.
Speaking of Emma Stone, T3 is it seems slowly becoming an Emma Stone fan page (and we're ok with it). The star is up for Best Actress once again for Poor Things and a superb zombie comedy featuring her is set to depart Prime Video as La La Land arrives.
