La La Land (2016)

La La Land really cleaned up at the Golden Globes last night, setting a record by sweeping all seven categories in which it was nominated. Now it's a real good movie, but I think one of the reasons it was able to do so remarkably well is 2016 was kind of a weak year for movies, and also Hollywood is a town where even the foreign press like to participate in its navel gazing. La La Land, more effectively then any film I've ever seen, manages to recapture the essence of a Gene Kelley movie musical of the 1950's. Both Singing in the Rain and An American in Pairs are well represented in the films motifs, and yet even more remarkably the nostalgia here is not overpowering. While it harkens back to an earlier age it consistently feels organic rather then forced, these characters are contemporary even as they evoke an earlier time, and the film doesn't try to shoe horn too much in, or make Ryan Gosling sing all the time. The opening number is joyous, the stylized one at closing is of a type we haven't seen in around 60 years, and Gosling and Emma Stone doing a little lite footwork on the street while looking for her car, well that just feels right. Still while I greatly appreciated the film I never quite felt the sense of enrapture I think it was aiming for. A fine score by Justin Hurwtiz. ***1/2