La La Land opens Telluride to big applause
Directed by Damien Chazelle and starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, “La La Land” received two mid-movie ovations and a 20-second one at the end as it opened the 43rd Telluride Film Festival.
Every best picture Oscar winner since 2008's “Slumdog Millionaire”, save for one, has played at Telluride, the annual Labor Day weekend gathering in Colorado, USA.
The film was selected for the coveted Friday afternoon Patron Preview slot, having already opened the Venice Film Festival earlier in the week. And the crowd that packed the Chuck Jones Cinema was not disappointed. They accorded the LA-set film two mid-movie ovations — one following its instant-classic opening sequence on a freeway and another following a heartwarming sequence at Griffith Park — and another 20-second one at the end.
La La Land sympathetically showcases the struggles and sacrifices of people who pursue careers in show business — in this case, a musician and an actress. It is expertly crafted, by the same prodigy — 31-year-old Chazelle — who made his name with another music-centric film, 2014's best picture-nominated “Whiplash”, and who has great reverence for film history.
Additionally, it stars two of the most likable people imaginable, on screen and off, taking a major artistic risk together and displaying magical chemistry five years after first doing so in “Crazy Stupid Love”. Gosling's performance may be undervalued because his character is a bumbling charmer, not entirely unlike himself — but, even so, he sings and dances winningly. As for Stone, her best actress nomination — maybe even a win — is sewn up with her emotional rendition of “Here's to the Ones Who Dream”, not unlike Anne Hathaway's was with her “I Dreamed a Dream” in 2012's “Les Miserables”.
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