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La La Land
What to do after the extraordinary success of WHIPLASH? For
the follow-up to his 2014 hit, writer-director Damien Chazelle looks
into the past while setting things firmly in the present, bridging two
eras with a fizzy and exhilarating homage to the energy and optimism of
one of Hollywood’s most successful genres. Drawing upon studio-era
spectacle, LA LA LAND ushers the musical into the 21st century in all
its brightly colored, anamorphic splendor, telling the story of two
star-crossed young dreamers determined to make it big on the silver
screen. It’s either stardom or bust!
A devotee
of the jazz legends Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, Sebastian (Ryan
Gosling) plays a mean piano himself and is determined to uphold the
values of the old masters. His plans include opening his own club, but
to make ends meet he’s stuck playing tepid cocktail jazz in a humdrum
Los Angeles restaurant. Mia (Emma Stone) is a movie buff with an eye for
the classics who aspires to be a serious actress. For the moment, the
closest she comes to seeing stars is serving lattes in the canteen on
the Warner Bros. lot. Sebastian and Mia meet
cute no less than three times before diving headlong into a
life-altering romance, but is their love strong enough to weather
disappointment, compromise, and ever-burgeoning periods apart?
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