Review Roundup: LA LA LAND Marks Return of the Movie Musical!

Academy Award nominee DAMIEN Chazelle's LA LA LAND opened the Venice Film Festival yesterday. Written and directed by Chazelle, the musically-themed film tells the story of Mia [Emma Stone], an aspiring actress, and Sebastian [Ryan Gosling], a dedicated jazz musician, who are struggling to make ends meet in a city known for crushing hopes and breaking hearts. Set in modern day Los Angeles, this original musical about everyday life explores the joy and pain of pursuing your dreams.

LA LA LAND will be released in NYC and LA on December 2, 2016. Let's see what the critics have to say:

A.O. Scott, The New York Times: On first viewing, for the first 90 minutes or so, you may find your delight shadowed by skepticism. Where is this going? Can this guy pull it off? Are these kids going to make it? Should we care? By the end, those questions vanish under a spell of enchantment.

Pete Hammond, Deadline: We live in hard times but this is a movie worth savoring, something that entertains, enlightens and makes us feel good about being alive. It is not to be missed by anyone who still cares for the future of the American musical.

Owen Gleiberman, Variety: "La La Land" isn't a masterpiece (and on some level it wants to be). Yet it's an exciting ramble of a movie, ardent and full of feeling, passionate but also exquisitely - at times overly - controlled. It winds up swimming in melancholy, yet its most convincing pleasures are the moments when it lifts the audience into a state of old-movie exaltation, leading us to think, "What a glorious feeling. I'm happy again."

Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter: As did so many American musicals made before the mid-1960s, this one pivots on a simple boy-meets-girl/they fall in love/complications ensue scenario. For this to work at all, you need to have attractive and sympathetic leading actors, and once you see Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone go into their moves here, it's as pleasurable to accept them in such roles as it once might have been to embrace, say, Gene Kelly and Shirley MacLaine.

Alonso Duhalde, The Wrap: Fans of musicals will adore this sparkling cinematic love letter, and if others are slow to embrace it, Chazelle's screenplay sees them coming. 'You don't think it's too nostalgic?' asks Mia, regarding her play. 'That's the point!' responds Sebastian. Mia: 'And if people don't like it?' Sebastian: 'F-k 'em!'"

Eric Kohn, IndieWire: It's been decades since a studio produced the kind of colorful musical fantasy that "La La Land" so affectionately salutes, but writer-director Damien Chazelle is the guy for the job.

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian: The seasons of a love affair are played out beguilingly in this wonderfully sweet, sad, smart new movie from Damien Chazelle - the director ofWhiplash - and the Venice film festival could not have wished for a bigger sugar rush to start the proceedings. It's an unapologetically romantic homage to classic movie musicals, splashing its poster-paint energy and dream-chasing optimism on the screen.

Robbie Collin, The Telegraph: La La Land wants to remind us how beautiful the half-forgotten dreams of the old days can be - the ones made up of nothing more than faces, music, romance and movement. It has its head in the stars, and for a little over two wonderstruck hours, it lifts you up there too.

Watch the official trailer for LA LA LAND below:

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