| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Ryan Gosling | ... | ||
| Emma Stone | ... | ||
| Amiée Conn | ... |
Famous Actress
|
|
| Terry Walters | ... |
Linda (Coffee Shop Manager)
|
|
| Thom Shelton | ... |
Coffee Spiller
|
|
| Cinda Adams | ... |
Casting Director (First Audition)
|
|
| Callie Hernandez | ... |
Tracy
|
|
| Jessica Rothe | ... |
Alexis
|
|
| Sonoya Mizuno | ... |
Caitlin
|
|
| Rosemarie DeWitt | ... |
Laura
|
|
| J.K. Simmons | ... | ||
| Claudine Claudio | ... | ||
| Jason Fuchs | ... | ||
|
|
D.A. Wallach | ... |
'80's Singer
|
| Trevor Lissauer | ... | ||
Mia, an aspiring actress, serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions and Sebastian, a jazz musician, scrapes by playing cocktail party gigs in dingy bars, but as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart. Written by Eirini
Writer/Director Damien Chazelle, who already had a nice career going for him, explodes into the Bigtime with this delightful, mesmerizing, and completely unexpected ode to Tinseltown.
The opening sequence does not do the rest of the film justice. It is as if the cast from FAME grew up, had children of their own, and then those children hijacked the Santa Monica freeway to do a 10 minute flash-mob dance sequence.
From that point on, the film is hypnotic.
We segue to a love story as pure as anything since the great dramas of the 1940s. If the film had been in B&W, you would almost have expected to see Bette Davis in a 3-hankie tear jerker.
Except for the musical interludes, of course, which are pitch perfect and totally wonderful.
Gosling is surprising as a leading man expected to do song and dance, but he delivers. Stone, who was supposed to be "the next big thing" after Easy A (2010), steals the film and possibly the hearts of the audience as well. The awards should flow like water, and she will deserve every one.
As I said, deep in the DNA this is an ode to Hollywood. The film industry has always had issues with endings -- back in the day they would film several different endings per picture -- and then decide at the last minute which to use. Here Chazelle pays homage to that by giving us an alternate ending, along with the real ending, along with a closing sequence designed to remind everyone that nothing in Hollywood is real, but everything can be fun.
Destined to be a classic. Recommended.