Oscars Preview: 30 Movies to Watch Before the Nominations Come Out!
By Emily Scott
Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and Mia (Emma Stone) in LA LA LAND. Photo credit: Dale Robinette
La La Land
What it’s about:
Mia is an aspiring actress living in L.A. and trying to fulfill her dream. On a night out after an unfortunate audition, she hears beautiful piano music as she walks past a restaurant. Drawn inside by the music, Mia spontaneously meets Sebastian, a jazz pianist trying to build a career for himself as a musician. After a series of chance meetings, they begin to fall in love. But their respective artistic ambitions, which initially attract them to each other, ultimately cause problems for the couple. Most notably, La La Land is a musical, a throwback to the Old Hollywood musical romances.
Major Players:
The writer and director of La La Land, Damien Chazelle, broke onto the scene with last year’s critically acclaimed Whiplash, for which he received a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. Mia is played by Emma Stone, who was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Birdman in 2015. Ryan Gosling, who plays Sebastian, surprisingly hasn’t been nominated since 2007 for Half Nelson.
What the Critics are Saying:
La La Land is pretty universally acclaimed, earning a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes so far. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw called it “a sun-drenched musical masterpiece,” and Owen Gleiberman of Variety says it’s “an elating ramble of a movie, ardent and full of feeling, passionate but also exquisitely controlled.” A.O. Scott of the New York Times has high praise for Chazelle, noting that “he outdoes himself in the last 20 minutes of ‘La La Land,’ and outdoes just about every other director of his generation, wrapping intense and delicate emotions in sheer, intoxicating cinematic bliss.”
Possible Nominations:
Best Picture, Best Director (Chazelle), Best Original Screenplay (Chazelle), Best Original Song (Justin Hurwitz/Benj Pasek and Justin Paul) Leading Actress (Stone), Leading Actor (Gosling), Cinematography (Linus Sandgren). The possibilities are endless here.