Movie Review: La La Land

Sad. Shocked. And pissed off.

That sums up how I felt at the ending of La La Land starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.

It's a great movie, for sure. It brings back the nostalgia of the old movies and musicals from the distant past. It has all the great stuff: original music, dancing, talent (yes that's really Ryan Gosling playing the piano) and a love story.

I go see movies to be entertained. This movie is pure entertainment. The two leads are exorbitantly talented in every way. And even with all that singing and dancing (it's a musical) you are truly transported to another place and you truly believe these two are really in love. You care about them as you lose yourself in the movie.

[Spoilers Ahead]

But I also go to a movie to see a happy ending. The world is full of non-happy endings. I have plenty of aggravation and sad stories in my life. I go to the movies to get away from that, and I'll bet you do too. If I had known this movie ended so sad I never would have seen it.

I want to smack the writer. He (or she) shows you how the lives of Sebastian and Mia ended up so differently (and so apart) after she gets the job in Paris. That was hard enough. I could have accepted that. But the writer didn't leave it at that. Oh no. You're treated to seeing an alternative timeline where they end up together, fully pulling on your heart strings... only to have the writer yank it away again. The alternate time line was just a dream. "It could have been," but it wasn't. That was cruel. My life is full of "it could have been." I don't need to see more of it.

People say it's ok because they each got their dreams fulfilled. That's fine for some people, I guess, but to me getting the one you love is much more important than any career-related dream. I'll always be a romantic... Crazy ROMANTIC RxMan.

So go suck it, La La Land: It's a great movie that I never want to see again.