Verdict - A lot of fun, but hardly the classic many are claiming it to be.
Ironic that for a musical, the bits that I enjoyed the most in La La Land are the ones that aren't the musical numbers.
This is a cute little romance about Mia, a barista and an aspiring actress who's failed a number of auditions, and Sebastian, a pianist who wants to make jazz great again.
The film works best as a straight up drama between the two characters; but director Damien Chazelle's approach to the musical numbers in the film is a little too plain and self-congratulatory to truly sparkle.
He employs a rainbow aesthetic that certainly is fun to watch because they simply don't make them like them anymore, but it's too straightforward a throwback - Chazelle doesn't challenge and reimagine the form the way Chi-Raq or Magic Mike XXL did.