“Here’s to the one’s who dream!” The people involved with movie musicals can usually only dream of the success that 2016’s La La Land has experienced so far. At the Golden Globes Awards on January 8, 2017, the movie broke the record for most Golden Globes won by a single movie, with a grand total of 7. The record was previously held by One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Midnight Express who both had 6 wins each. The movie won in all of the categories that it was nominated in. It won for Best Musical or Comedy Motion Picture, Best Original Score, Best Screenplay of a Motion Picture, Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy, Best Director of a Motion Picture, and Best Original Song in a Motion Picture for the song “City of Stars”. It has been nominated for many other awards this year, including 14 Oscars nominations; a tie for the most nominations ever for a single movie.

La La Land is a movie musical starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. The movie follows the lives of Mia (Emma Stone), a struggling actress and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), a jazz pianist. It focuses on their lives and how they intertwine. Mia wants to be a famous actress and Sebastian wants to own his own jazz club, but neither of them is in good positions to do that at the point in their lives when they meet. As the movie progresses, we get to see how their dreams factor into their life decisions, with a few phenomenal musical numbers sprinkled in throughout the movie. This movie is not just a mushy love story and musical, there are many parts of the movie that are absolutely hilarious and have the whole theater laughing (I’d know, I’ve seen in 3 times so far). The movie opens with a musical number staged on the highway in LA. The scene runs for a few minutes and was actually shot on a strip of a highway; the whole scene was shot in one take and all the traffic was seen is actual LA traffic. The instrumental songs are also amazing, my favorites are “Chinatown” and “Boise”. All of the music in the movie is amazing.

The score for the movie was written by Justin Hurwitz and the lyrics were written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. There are 15 tracks on the soundtrack, 8 of which are instrumental, and 30 tracks on the score album. There is so much pure talent in this production. If you are a jazz fan, this movie is 100% for you. In “Epilogue” there is a fantastic trumpet solo, and many others throughout the film. John Legend also makes an appearance in the movie and has a song in the movie, “Start a Fire”, in which Ryan Gosling plays the piano with their band, “The Messengers”. It is a modern day R+B funk song, and I personally think it is amazing (pay special attention to the piano/synth part). The bottom line is that the entirety of the music in this movie is great. Hurwitz was also the composer for the drama movie Whiplash, which also features lots of jazz music and was directed by Damien Chazelle. Hurwitz won the Golden Globe for Best Original Score for La La Land.

The director, Damien Chazelle, was very inspired by old-timey movie musicals and shot this similar to one. He was clever with picking the name because La La Land is what LA is called and also a state of mind which the characters spend a lot of time in throughout the movie. The movie is shot in CinemaScope, which allows for the dancing scenes to be shot in one take. A couple of the scenes are as long as 5-7 minutes and there is not a cut in them. The actors had to go through a lot of serious training before shooting this film. There were 3 months of rehearsal before the filming began. For stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, this meant that they had practiced together for three months to perfect their scenes. They had to learn to dance, sing, and play their parts. Ryan Gosling had to be taught how to play the piano, and by the time the shot the film, he had already memorized his parts for every song in the movie and could play them by heart. John Legend, who plays Keith and is a classically trained pianist, revealed that he was jealous of how fast Gosling had gotten so good at the piano. Throughout the film, you can see him playing the piano, and if you look closely, you can see that he is playing the correct notes. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling also sing all their parts in the movie. Unlike movies such as High School Musical and West Side Story, the actors playing the main characters are actually the ones singing on the tracks.

I could honestly not say enough good things about this movie, but I have to stop somewhere. The movie has a 93% approval rating and is a new all-time favorite for many people. I highly recommend this movie for everyone, there is something in it for everybody. If you don’t go see it, at least try to listen to some of the songs.