'La La Land' Wows Toronto — Is This the Most Raved-About Movie of the Year So Far?
The new musical La La Land came into this year’s Toronto Film Festival on a wave of good vibes, having already collected enthusiastic reviews at the Venice and Telluride Film Festivals. Writer-director Damien Chazelle’s modern-day romance reteams Crazy, Stupid, Love costars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in a tale that’s a jazzy love letter to Los Angeles and the entertainment industry. There was a palpable excitement in the air leading up to the Monday night premiere in Canada, and the film didn’t disappoint, earning loud applause after nearly every musical number, which made the screening feel like a hit Broadway show.
It’s a spectacular achievement by Chazelle, who broke out last year with his Oscar-winning drama Whiplash. Like that Miles Teller–J.K. Simmons two-hander, La La Land is deeply rooted in the filmmaker’s first love: jazz music. The great American art form is the palette with which composer (and Chazelle’s Harvard roommate) Justin Hurwitz crafts the film’s infectious score.
The plot is a primal Hollywood tale: Stone plays an aspiring actress who works as a barista on the Warner Bros. lot in between thankless auditions. Gosling is a struggling jazz pianist who aspires to open his own club. After a couple early interactions that are the opposite of meet-cutes, the pair fall in love, only to see their ambitions threaten their relationship.
La La Land is a throwback to musicals of old, particularly the cultishly beloved 1964 French film The Umbrellas of Cherbourgh. It captures the allure of Hollywood and is an unabashed ode to Los Angeles. The film is so effective in its romanticizing of L.A. that its very first scene takes the one thing everyone there loves to complain about — traffic — and turns it into a dazzling set piece.
The film’s combination of stylish, foot-tapping musical sequences, effervescent lead performances, and enchanting romance has critics swooning. Time‘s Stephanie Zacharek writes that it has “the potential to make lovers of us all,” while The Playlist‘s Jessica Kiang calls it “an absolute triumph.” It drew similar raves from Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. Access Hollywood critic Scott Mantz predicted La La Land would be “huge and connect on the same level as Titanic.” And at Telluride, even Tom Hanks got in on the La La lovefest, interrupting his own Q&A for Sully to gush about it. (Some of the headlines it’s triggered have, admittedly, been a bit over-the-top. Just see Esquire‘s page-topper, “If You Don’t Enjoy ‘La La Land,’ You Probably Don’t Deserve to Be Happy,” which is just inviting contrarians to launch a backlash.)
It’s only September and there are plenty of films still to premiere this year. But La La Land has to be considered an early awards-season favorite. “Give La La Land All the Oscars This Year,” went last night’s headline on Cinema Blend. Meanwhile, Gold Derby‘s head pundit Tom O’Neil — who also compared the film to Titanic — predicted the film would get the most nominations this year “by far,” including below-the-line categories like costumes, art direction and score.
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Is it too early to talk Best Picture? Possibly. But there is a precedent. Let’s go back five years to the 2011 sensation The Artist. Like La La Land, the black-and-white mostly-silent film was roundly hailed as a gem. It also has some striking similarities to La La Land that L.A.-based Oscar voters will likely appreciate. Chief among them: It’s a glowing yarn set in the world of showbiz.
The Artist became the Oscar favorite early, first at Cannes in May 2011, and then at Toronto in September. Its momentum never wavered, resulting in one of the least suspenseful Best Picture races in recent memory. This coming February, the Academy could very well go similarly gaga over La La.
