Mia (Stone) is a struggling actress looking for her big break, all the while working in a cafe on the Warner Brothers compound while she isn't jumping into song and dance with her room mates. Sebastian (Gosling) is a struggling Jazz Singer who has a dream of opening his own Jazz Bar but has to make ends meet by playing to a set list on the piano of a restaurant. The two meet after a glitzy opening dance number about it being a sunny day (I think.... the sound in our cinema wasn't amazing) when Mia is blocking traffic which met with some aggressive beeping from Sebastian. So this isn't the most romantic type of love at first sight stuff here. So the two meet again in a bar where Seb is playing Christmas tunes but just around the time he begins playing jazz which gets him fired leading to ANOTHER frosty encounter. The two finally meet at a party, go for a long walk, go on a few dates and get together. The rest of the film follows their blossoming love through the rise of both their careers, with songs, dancing and drama.
This is La La Land in a nut shell, this is a love story with a shit load of dancing and song. It is like a west end show on the big screen, and for what it is the film is really good. It is beautifully made with a bloody catchy set of songs from Gosling and Stone. You want these two to grow as a couple, you want their love to flourish. The reason it loses half a point from me is the over campiness of the colorful dancing scenes at the start and during the Sliding Doors style scenes. The film works so much better during the middle of the film and that, in my option, ruined it a little.
This film is worth the Oscar hype and will probably win best picture. This is a great throwback to the musicals for yesteryear and will hopefully bring along a resurgence of the genre.