La La Land

“I’m always gonna love you.” La La Land doesn’t break your heart loudly, it does it quietly. It’s a beautiful story that shows you what it means to love someone deeply, and still walk away. The storytelling is so raw, it’s so honest it’s devastating. But the way Chazelle paints the story with color is honestly brilliant. The blue aches, gold glows just enough until it starts fading. The city dances with Mia and Seb, it moves with them, it lets them fall in love wholeheartedly and honestly in the most beautiful raw and organic way. The cinematography in this film is quietly stunning. The camera moves with purpose never flashy, but always deliberate. The framing, the shifts in focus, the way light is used to signal mood or memory, it all works seamlessly with the story. Sometimes it’s the light alone that makes you feel something before the characters even speak. But it’s the music that puts the knife in your chest and twists it. Hurwitz creates such a beautiful score, it feels like a memory, it echoes, it lingers, it’s full of longing. “Mia & Sebastian’s theme” especially. It doesn’t force your tears or your heartache it earns it. Stone gives everything in this role, she was so brilliant. Gosling did such a great job at showing unspoken love. It feels like more than acting, it feels as though they remember each other in real time.  La La Land doesn’t end with a breakup. It ends with just a look, one that holds everything they had, and everything they never will. It’s not anger, or regret. It’s love, still there, just out of reach. And somehow, that hurts more than anything else ever could.