'La La Land' has Hollywood singing a different tune on musicals

Like others here, I found LLL underwhelming. It was Hollywood pleasuring itself with a nostalgic idea of itself. A giant singing & dancing selfie, if you will.

For all their acting talents, the principals did not have the ability to sing and dance at the level of the numerous stars of the previous films referenced in LLL. As a result the whole thing was a bit flat. The love story, too, was a bit corny. Especially the rerun of what might have been, at the end. That was a groaner and much too simplistic.

I hope it doesn't get too many Oscars. There are other films with much more weight and finer performances.

LaLaLand is not a bad film, however it is not a great film either.

I do appreciate the work done by the cast & crew, and particularly by the choreographer, and yet...

14 Nominations? This is not Singing In The Rain of Ben Hur.

Indeed, look at the film Hail Caesar, also released last year -- the Sailor Dance number, "No Dames" is a lot of fun and well executed. Hail Caesar pokes fun at Golden Age Hollywood but will go unnoticed by Oscar. Although it is not the best film from the Coen Brothers, it is still a smart comedy and they hit their mark right between the eyes.

Arrival better win something

I agree with Joeintokyo. The second half of La La Land finally got better, once the main part of the story kicked in. But the first half was brutal. Lots of fluff, lots of totally unnecessary songs that don't further the plot any. I'm not the target audience for a musical, but in my opinion, songs work best when they're moving the story along or when something new about the characters is being revealed by them. La La Land had a lot of songs just for songs' sake, and I found myself getting bored.

Hollywood's love affair with itself, just like Birdman (a really odd movie) winning best picture.

@Joeintokyo can't agree more, I really don't get all the fuss about it.

While dancing is the most natural outcome of music, there are other emotions that can result too. Bob Dylan music for example had a whole generation exploding with anger. Did they dance as well to these songs?