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LA LA Land Reveiw

What I liked: What impressed me first about this movie was the really long shots. The camera zoomed around between rooms, up and over cars, and all over taking really long shots. That gave it a good feeling of being an on stage musical where your eye follows the movement of the action across the stage. The film's commitment to being a musical sky rocketed when it included a tap dance number. Followed by a random existential dance sequence. Most of the costuming at the beginning was clearly very musically too: bright colors, flippy skirts, bloomers. The story itself was fairly good and I thought they did a good job of capturing the decisions around making compromises and incremental progress toward one's dreams. The last song, the reprise of the piano solo that has been woven through the whole film, was really good and captured the feeling of what it if. I also really liked seeing the LA scenery I got to enjoy on my recent trip. 

What I didn't: The commitment to full on musical was impressive. I would have expected with that focus they would have cast people who could sing. Both the leads had the contemporary style of very breathy quiet blah. I guess the film makers figured out this was a problem because we are bopping along in a musical and then bam. Full stop. Gear shift. Now it's a Rom Com. Ok... adjusting.You probably shouldn't dump your boyfriend like that. Wait. This is shifting... bam... surprise! It's an artsy drama! All of the bits were done well but if you are making a musical you should probably commit to it being a musical and not get side tracked into it being 1/3 musical 1/3 rom com and 1/3 drama. It just leaves the audience a bit ... disoriented. You should probably also decide which decade you are shooting. Some of it was clearly modern, some of it felt like it was from other decades. Also I really think at some point they would have gotten arrested for trespassing. 

Who should watch this? I'm not sure. It would be easier to make a recommendation if I knew what kind of movie it was.

Would I watch it again? I got my ticket for free as a promotion. It was fun to see. I am still very very confused.
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