Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are parked show biz kids Damien Chazelle’s musical “La La Land.”
What does Damien Chazelle know about love? His Oscar-nominated film “La La Land” is a musical love story, the tale of an aspiring actress and a struggling jazz musician whose steps cross and whose songs entwine in a well-crafted love ballad. But there’s something off note in “La La Land,” a horn player racing too quickly through the eighths. The bloom of love in “La La Land” has the passion of treadmill runners at a gym: It’s hard but its profits come quick. And that’s how Chazelle propels their romance, without a recovery period for anyone. Tripped off-balance by Chazelle’s desire to apostrophe the story, the couple’s frenzied tango has nary a step that doesn’t feel painted on the floor like Arthur Murray footprints. No lovely moments of cigarettes and coffee and French ennui; there are more auditions than kisses. It’s very musical, indeed: ‘Wham, bam, thank you mam’ and Emma Stone walks away like a woman missing a business meeting. For all the posters of Bergman and Davis on the wall, Chazelle doesn’t leave this Joan much room for passion. which is a shame. La La Land isn’t Paris. It a driven world where two artists ultimately are more in love with their golden dreams than they could ever be with each other. But that’s not a philosophical issue as Chazelle presents it — it’s more a scheduling problem. The land of Chazelle’s la-la is a Pacific Coast traffic jam and industry sex: Glamorous, beautiful, and keeping them back. And while the music swirls and stays in step for the most part, the film never manages to find the languidness of Miles Davis dipping into blues or jazz’s neighbor: Soul.