In Hollywood, you have to cash your chips immediately. Got a hit? Follow it up with something you’re dying to do, because by film three, your cache could be already evaporated. So what did indie director Damien Chazelle do immediately after his Sundance breakout hit, “Whiplash” which won him three Oscar nominations including a prestigious Best Editing award? Well, make an ambitious musical of course, because when else would he have the juice to pull that off?
Chazelle’s next is “La La Land” and it’s like a rare sighting of an endangered animal: a completely original musical not based on a pre-existing text or Broadway play. A-listers Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone — who had fireworks chemistry in “Crazy. Stupid. Love” — lead the picture with classic song and dance routines and everything, and Justin Hurwitz, from “Whiplash,” returns to pen the songs. It might seem like total folly, but Chazelle is no slouch and pulled off a musical for his debut film, the little-seen“Guy And Madeline On A Park Bench.”
The story is set in Los Angeles and tracks the relationship between a jazz pianist (Gosling) and an actress (Stone) who try to keep their relationship together in a city where ambition often comes first.
“La La Land” also co-stars J. K. Simmons, Finn Wittrock, John Legend, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Meagen Fay, and opens on December 16th. Listen to “City Of Stars” from the trailer right here.
