La La Land – 6.7

A cotton candy confection of a film: pretty, sweet, airy, but not much there. Rather than playing real people, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling seemed to be playing Debbie Reynolds and Gene Kelly, or Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. The film embraced its derivative core in such meta moments as the characters’ dream dance sequence at the Griffith Observatory, and you got the feeling that every cliche-driven plot point alluded to Hollywood’s past. In short, it was an exercise in style, and I kept waiting for an emotional click that, for me, never came. The songs, the dancing, the sets, the people – nothing was very memorable. And if I am to watch a Hollywood starlet’s face up close for two hours, there are many I would prefer to Emma Stone’s.