海角大神

A dreamlike musical is quickly becoming one of the hits of the Venice Film Festival as critics embrace 鈥淟a La Land,鈥� the newest film by 鈥淲hiplash鈥� director Damien Chazelle and possibly the latest song-and-dance fest to become an acclaimed hit.聽

鈥淟and鈥� stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone and made its debut at the Venice Film Festival, with the movie also scheduled to screen at the Toronto Film Festival later this month. The movie will open in a limited release on Dec. 2.聽

The film tells the story of a piano player (Mr. Gosling) who becomes romantically involved with a wannabe actress (Ms. Stone). It also stars J.K. Simmons, Finn Wittrock, John Legend, and Rosemarie DeWitt.

Mr. Chazelle, who also wrote the film, was nominated for best adapted screenplay at the Oscars for his work on 鈥淲hiplash鈥� and his movie was nominated for Best Picture.

The movie has received raves so far at the Venice Film Festival, with calling it 鈥渄azzling.鈥� Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are close to perfection 鈥� glorious, open-hearted.鈥� Ms. Zacharek writes that the music is also part of what won her over, calling the ditties 鈥渂eautifully staged and choreographed, and the mix of styles is playful.鈥澛�

also praised the film鈥檚 two leads and the music in particular, writing that 鈥渙nce you see Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone go into their moves here, it's as pleasurable to accept them in such roles as it once might have been to embrace, say, Gene Kelly and Shirley MacLaine.... Composer Justin Hurwitz 鈥� has delivered an LP's worth of buoyant, charming tunes,鈥� though Mr. McCarthy wrote that 鈥渢he film loses some of its edge in this final stretch and arguably overstays its welcome by perhaps 10 minutes.鈥澛�

writes that the movie 鈥渋sn鈥檛 a masterpiece 鈥� yet it鈥檚 an elating ramble of a movie, ardent and full of feeling.鈥� Mr. Gleiberman lauded the music also, writing, 鈥淸The] series of song-and-dance numbers 鈥� are tenderly shocking in their catchy anachronistic beauty. The film鈥檚 score is such a melodious achievement that there are moments it evokes the bittersweet majesty of George Gershwin.鈥� Gosling and Stone click together as effervescently as they did in 鈥楥razy, Stupid, Love.鈥欌��

The movie opening in limited release makes it slightly different from recent musical hits like 鈥淚nto the Woods鈥� and 鈥淟es Mis茅rables,鈥� which opened wide and became high-grossing films. Yet 鈥淟and鈥� is still the newest in a movie genre that has become more popular in recent years, with films like the 2001 Oscar-nominated box office hit 鈥淢oulin Rouge!鈥� and 2002鈥檚 high-grossing 鈥淐hicago鈥� (which won the Oscar Best Picture) kicking off a new era for the musical movie.