What’s the Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling musical La La Land actually about?
And whether you love – or hate – the idea of Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone singing and dancing their way across the silver screen, La La Land’s an important contender across this year’s awards season, landing 11 nominations at this year’s BAFTAs, including one for Best Direction and Best Original Screenplay.
With seven Golden Globes already down, and the 14 nominations at the Oscars, we’ve sorted out a handy film guide for the uninitiated.
What’s La La Land about?
The film charts the journey of struggling jazz musician Sebastian (Gosling) and budding actress Mia (Stone), who fall in love after a number of chance meetings in Los Angeles.
Across the course of their relationship, Seb and Mia’s career ambitions force them to make a number of heartbreaking decision that impacts their future as a couple.
Essentially, La La Land explores how careers can get in the way of matters of the heart – and asks what’s more important out of the two.
Why is it called La La Land?
The phrase La La Land is often used to describe Los Angeles and Hollywood, the film’s setting and the part of the city famed for its film industry and the big names that have walked its streets.
In a more symbolic sense, the term La La Land has also come to also define the dreamer mindset of someone out of touch with reality – much like film’s leading characters.
Who’s in La La Land?
Ryan Gosling (Sebastian)
Ryan Gosling plays the struggling jazz musician Seb and yes, he definitely learnt the piano for the role.
‘I play a pretty complicated piano piece in one take,’ he told The Hollywood Reporter.
‘I had only been playing the piano for three months. Damien [Chazelle] brought in a hand double, but I knew his dream was to shoot it without one. I was able to do it, but it was really sort of trial by fire.’
The Canadian actor won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Comedy or Musical and was also nominated for a Best Actor BAFTA and Oscar award.
Emma Stone (Mia)
Emma Stone has already nabbed Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance of Mia, but it could have been a very different story with Emma Watson originally slated for the role (She dropped out for Beauty And The Beast).
Stone has previously said her fragile voice – her ‘Achilles’ heel – left her originally reluctant to sign up to La La Land, after a Broadway stint in Cabaret back in 2014 left her ‘very sick’.
Bet she’s thanking her lucky stars she stuck with the film!
John Legend (Keith)
Legend plays Keith, the lead singer of the fictional band The Messengers who also happens to be the childhood buddy of Sebastian.
When Keith gives Seb a gig in his band as a pianist, a demanding tour schedule sends him away from Mia for months and sees some of the first cracks form in their relationship.
It’s not Legend’s first foray into film – he starred with the late Bernie Mac and Samuel L Jackson back in 2008 in Soul Men.
JK Simmons (Bill)
You may have been scratching your head wondering where you’ve seen JK Simmons before – in La La Land he plays the tough restaurant boss who fires Seb after he doesn’t play the right music for diners.
Well, JK was the lead in Chazelle’s earlier film Whiplash – which landed him the Best Supporting Actor gong back at the 2014 Oscars.
When did La La Land hit UK cinemas?
The film was released last month on January 13, 2017.
Where can I check out the trailer?
Lucky for you, we’ve got the La La Land’s trailer just below.
What awards and nominations has La La Land already received?
The film has been nominated 223 times and already cleaned up 148 wins, according to IMDb.
At the Golden Globes, the film was recognised with seven awards including Best Actor for Ryan Gosling, Best Actress for Emma Stone and Best Director and Best Screenplay for Damien Chazelle, La La Land.
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