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La La Land

La La Land

Comedy · Drama · Romance · 2016

Mia, an aspiring actress, serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions and Sebastian, a jazz musician, scrapes by playing cocktail party gigs in dingy bars, but as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.

Movie details

La La Land

“Here's to the fools who dream.”

2016 Comedy · Drama · Romance 2h 9m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

7.9 / 10

Community rating

Mia, an aspiring actress, serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions and Sebastian, a jazz musician, scrapes by playing cocktail party gigs in dingy bars, but as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over La La Land?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Great Expectations

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Sweet Charity

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Burlesque

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The Barkleys of Broadway

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Damien Chazelle

Written by

Damien Chazelle

Ryan Gosling

Ryan Gosling

Sebastian

Emma Stone

Emma Stone

Mia

John Legend

John Legend

Keith

Rosemarie DeWitt

Rosemarie DeWitt

Laura

Finn Wittrock

Finn Wittrock

Greg

Callie Hernandez

Callie Hernandez

Tracy

Sonoya Mizuno

Sonoya Mizuno

Caitlin

Court is in session

Put La La Land on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.