elekmat90

Seeing the interesting premise as well as being a big fan of Riley Stearns' second feature (The Art of Self-Defense) made me want to check this one out. Comparing the two they have a lot in common, themes like loneliness, being in control of your own life and the need to belong, as well as a good amount of dark humor are all in there. Even though it does slow down a bit midway through, the characters are interesting and the dialogues witty enough to carry the viewer through to a great ending.

P. S. I was really glad to see Leland Orser as a lead after so many supporting/smaller roles and boy did he nail this Ansel character, he absolutely stole the show (Winstead was also great as usual).

I liked the concept of presenting one troublesome eviction in an 85-minute long movie that never slows down. The biggest problem is that it runs out of ideas and becomes repetitive after a while. I DID like how the unnecessary bureaucracy is presented, where no one wants to take responsibilty and far too many parties have to be involved. Despite this it really gets more and more tiresome as it goes on and even though the ending is decent, I felt that there was more potential in the premise of this story. OK, but could have been better.

I have to say I am not really a fan of musicals, but was completely captivated by La La Land. The opening scene on the highway was a shocker for me, I was starting to fear that I will a have a hard time with this movie. Thankfully Chazelle's screenplay and directing are top notch, the musical parts also get better as it goes on and the climactic last scene was just perfect. La La Land is basically a love letter to both cinema and music coming from someone who himself was torn between becoming a filmmaker or a jazz drummer. Just like in the case of Whiplash, you can feel this project was really important for Chazelle. The chemistry between Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling is great and the former gives one of her best performances and proves to be a quite talented singer as well. Go watch it even if musicals are not your thing!