Driving along the throughway in a Prius, Emma Stone first encounters Ryan Gosling, but her name is Mia and his is Sebastian. With a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes’ ‘Tomatometer’, an audience score of 89%, and a critic consensus of it “breath[ing] new life into a bygone genre with thrillingly assured direction, powerful performances, and an irresistible excess of heart,” (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/la_la_land/) it has apparent that Academy Award nominee and director, Damien Chazelle’s, musical La La Land has zealously and ardently pulled upon the heart strings of viewers everywhere.

La La Land, released on December 9^th, 2016, with a PG-13 rating and runtime of 128 minutes, instantaneously established its effortless dramatic and comedic musicality. Set in Los Angeles, this light-hearted yet often times powerful musical starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone explores the actualities of chasing dreams and falling in love. Because of its nuanced approach to musicals, La La Land broke records at the 74^th Annual Golden Globes Awards on Sunday, January 8^th by winning “all seven of the awards for which it received nominations including best motion picture – musical or comedy, best director, best screenplay, best score and acting awards for its stars” (http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/08/entertainment/golden-globes-2017/).

I, an avid musical devotee, watched La La Land on Saturday, January 7^th, and was immediately swept away by its antiquated yet avant-garde elegance, its upbeat pastel hues, its delightful jazz melodies, its celebrity cameos, its chic costume designs, and its general stratagem toward delivering dialogue. If I were a movie critic, I’d give La La Land a 100% review!