La La Land

lalaland

La La Land (2016)

Movie reviewed by: Jenny Bui

Movie Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance Musical

Ontario Movie Rating: PG-13

Opening Date: December 16, 2016

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend, Rosemarie DeWitt

Director: Damien Chazelle

General age of people in the theatre: 20yrs+

Was there smoking in the movie? There were several instances (<10) of cigarette smoking throughout the movie.

tobacco impressions

 

La La Land is a musical about a relationship unfolding between two artists, an aspiring actress and an aspiring jazz musician, who happen to cross paths at just the right moments in time. Throughout the movie, the audience will come to discover that this is more than just a romance flick at surface level—there are themes strongly linked to bravery and perseverance.

Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are one of my favourite on-screen couples and I believe that their compatibility truly shines through in this movie, especially during the magical scenes where they’ve perfected synchronized dance routines in tap dancing shoes! I’m also not the type of person to choose a musical as one of my top movie options, but watching La La Land was definitely a game-changer (disclaimer: this is coming from someone who last watched the High School Musical series) and a choice that I do not regret in the slightest.

The presence of tobacco use occurs several times (<10) throughout the movie and involves background characters smoking cigarettes. In one scene, there appeared to be an individual smoking amongst a small crowd of non-smokers. This movie does not show the real health effects and consequences of secondhand smoke, which is a very important issue to discuss because the aftermath of secondhand smoke exposure is largely misinformed and considered underwhelming compared to firsthand smoke. After witnessing that scene, I felt discomforted because the portrayal of secondhand smoke was not taken seriously. I have no doubt in mind that the audience wouldn’t have minded if the smoking was removed from that scene because the primary focus was on the main characters and the developing story line. Overall, the occurrence of smoking in this movie was largely unnecessary and I would strongly encourage movie-goers to think about the real health effects and consequences of smoking while watching.