I tried, I really tried.

Having just watched Babylon the other day and absolutely LOVING it, I thought it must be high time I finally gave La La Land a watch. I mean, if Chazelle's biggest box office flop to date was actually incredible, surely his biggest success will be simply mind blowing?

The intro immediately had me cringing. I guess somehow, after all these years (writing this in 2024), I had missed the part where La La Land is a musical. And don't get me wrong - I actually love a well made musical. But I dunno...something about this one from the very onset just felt so...Glee club? Forced? Cheesy?

It didn't get better from there. I gave it a good chance. I kept waiting for the story to suck me in and it just wasn't happening. After looking at the time stamp and seeing we were already somehow 30mins in and I was still not enjoying myself or curious to see where it went, I called it a day.

I like Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in the right roles, but this did not feel like good casting honestly. Gosling was completely unlikeable from the get-go, and Stone seems awkward and clumsy. I'd already seen some of the scenes of them dancing online and always thought it was like watching a giraffe dance. Like, it's not that she can't dance, because she can, it's just that it doesn't look in anyway graceful or like it comes naturally? Her recent dance scene in Poor Things seems a lot more fitting for her.

Take it with a grain of salt because I didn't make it all the way through, but the film felt like a corny rehash of movies that have already been done way better in the past. It felt predictable, awkward and the script was almost unbearable.

The only really redeeming qualities I could see at this point were the cinematography and use of colours. Obviously, not enough to keep me even a little bit interested.

Cannot BELIEVE all the awards went to this one when Babylon really is the true love-letter to cinema.