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La La Land (2016)
La La Land (2016) poster

La La Land (2016)

Comedy, Drama, Romance, Music • 2h 9m

Director: Damien Chazelle

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend, Rosemarie DeWitt, J.K. Simmons, Amiée Conn, Terry Walters, Thom Shelton, Cinda Adams, Callie Hernandez, Jessica Rothe, Sonoya Mizuno, Claudine Claudio, Jason Fuchs, D.A. Wallach, Trevor Lissauer, Olivia Hamilton, Anna Chazelle, Marius de Vries, Finn Wittrock, Josh Pence, Nicole Coulon, Damon Gupton, Christopher Michael Stevens, Keith Harris, Kaveh Rastegar, David Douglas, Miles Anderson, Bobo Chang, Meagen Fay, John Hindman, Valarie Rae Miller, Nicole Wolf, Corrin Evans, Kiff VandenHeuvel, Tom Everett Scott, Hemky Madera, Zoë Hall, Dempsey Pappion, Clifton 'Fou Fou' Eddie, Cal Bennett, Nedra Wheeler, Javier Gonzalez, Khirye Tyler, Briana Lee, Shaylah J. Stevens, Natalie Imani, Camryn Ray Cavaliero, Sandra Rosko, Arthur Horowitz, Reshma Gajjar, Candice Coke, Hunter Hamilton, Damian Gomez, Amanda Balen, Lou Becker, Dominic Chaiduang, Cindera Che, Chris Moss, Marissa Labog, Tiffany Daniels, Melinda Sullivan, Stephanie Landwehr, Britt Stewart, Clarice Ordaz, Nathan Prevost, Mecca Vazie Andrews, Scott Hislop, KC Monnie, Krystal Ellsworth, Sarah Mitchell, Khasan Brailsford, Morgan Larson, Becca Sweitzer, Gakenia Muigai, Michael Stein, Mario Diaz, Julie Schmid, Samantha Abrantes, Lexie Contursi, Eartha Robinson, Sybil Azur, Tara Nicole Hughes, Kayla Kalbfleisch, Martha Nichols, Anthony Marciona, Bill Prudich, Robert Roldan, Ryan Novak, Demian Boergadine, Gustavo Vargas, Robert Haynes, Doran Butler, Matt Cady, Carol Connors, Patrick Cook, Aaron 'Deuce' Cooke, Bubba Dean Rambo, Nick Drago, Shaun Evaristo, Dana Fukagawa, Daniel Gaymon, Liz Imperio, Casey Johansen, Cris Judd, Yoori Kim, Bradley M. Rapier, Dana Wilson, Terrance Yates, Tracy Shibata, Dominique Domingo, Asiel Hardison, Corey Anderson, Nick Baga, Leah Adler, Noel Bajandas, Denzel Chisolm, Montana Efaw, Natalie Gilmore, Shannon Holtzapffel, Galen Hooks, Jeremy Hudson, George Lawrence Jr., Scott Myrick, Cassidy Noblett, Brittany Parks, Víctor Rojas, Tony Bellissimo, Ryan Ramirez, Catalina Cat Rendic, Bryan Tanaka, Ava Bernstine-Mitchell, Quinn Lipton, Monie Adamson, Matthew Aylward, McKenzie Anderson, Pamela Chu, Mallauri Esquibel, Michael Higgins, Chris Jarosz, Matthew Kazmierczak, Paul Kirkland, Megan Lawson, Michael Munday, Brandon O'Neal, Chelsea Thedinga, Danny Valle, Emily Williams, Tommy Cooley, Kristin Slaysman, Ana Flavia Gavlak, Noah James, Ottavio Taddei, Destinee Handly, Steffen Dziczek, Vince Donvito, Patty Tobin, Crystal Nichol, Kaye L. Morris, Trent Kerpsack, Holly Houk, Andrea Lareo, April Martucci, Heather Turman, Jenna Curtis, Jordan Ray Fox, Anna Lunberry, Christopher Aber, Margaret Newborn, C.J. Stussi, Cameron Brinkman, Kristin Elliott, Lynn Moore, Nilla Elizabeth Watkins, Andres Perez-Molina, Shannon Leann, Milica Govich, Frederick Keeve, Amanda Fields, Hunter Clowdus, Jessica Rotter, Bruce Davison, Bunny Levine

Best available format

UHD Blu-ray

UHD tiers

Excellent
Eagle Pictures:

Italian import

Superior Imports
Eagle Pictures Italy > Lionsgate US:

better compression than Lionsgate & brightness levels fixed

Overview

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.

Release details

Best Video Release

Italy Eagle Pictures has DV, better encode, and no brightness shifts compared to Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio Release

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray for the original Dolby Atmos mix

Additional Info

Hong Kong Panorama 4K Blu-ray has two interviews available in HD that are SD everywhere else

Length
129 mins
Type
Movie

More from Damien Chazelle

See more →

Director: Damien Chazelle

Excellent
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Sony 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Sony 4K Blu-ray

Director: Damien Chazelle

Solid
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Universal 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Universal 4K Blu-ray. IMAX scenes are reference quality, everything else is solid

Director: Damien Chazelle

Excellent
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray

More from Lionsgate

See more →

Director: Carol Reed

Solid
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray or Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray/Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray (shared encode); slight improvement over the 2015 StudioCanal Blu-ray

Best Audio:

StudioCanal/LG UHDs port the 1999 Criterion DVD, considered the best source

Additional Info:

StudioCanal has a remastered Blu-ray, Lionsgate only a 4K Blu-ray

Director: Robert Rodriguez

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

2D: Spain Emon Blu-ray
3D: US LionsgateGermany StudioCanal, or Netherlands Entertainment One 3D Blu-ray?

Best Video:

2D: Spain Emon Blu-ray
3D: US LionsgateGermany StudioCanal, or Netherlands Entertainment One 3D Blu-ray?

Best Audio:

US Lionsgate Blu-ray

Director: Robert Rodriguez

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Lionsgate Blu-ray

Best Video:

Lionsgate Blu-ray

Director: Jon Favreau

UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Original 5.1 Mix: UK Momentum Pictures DVD

Director: Anthony Minghella

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

US Lionsgate Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray scheduled for Dec 2026 release

Best Video:

US Lionsgate Blu-ray looks very different from either Italy Eagle Pictures or Germany Kinowelt Blu-ray: https://caps-a-holic.com/c_list.php?c=502 but other than color grading looks better

Director: Werner Herzog

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

UK Lionsgate Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Criterion Blu-ray scheduled for Dec 2026 release

Best Video:

2015 UK Lionsgate Blu-ray

Director: Sophie Hyde

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

UK Lionsgate Blu-ray

Best Video:

UK Lionsgate Blu-ray

Director: Tom Gormican

UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray

Director: Mamoru Oshii

Solid
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Bandai Japan 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Bandai JP 4K Blu-ray

All 4K releases are sourced from the same mediocre transfer provided by Bandai, with various amounts of tweaks. Japanese disc presents it with the least tinkering.

The best attempt at improving it comes from the German/French releases from KSM/All the Anime, both of which use the same master with HDR regrading (original grade is SDR in HDR container), tasteful regraining and sharpening, in an attempt to breathe some life into the middling transfer, making for an arguably more pleasing viewing experience.

All earlier releases are from an even worse transfer, with significant black crush, with the exception of a Japanese TV airing, which doesn't suffer from that issue, but instead is heavily sharpened and suffers from poor encoding.

Comparisons: JPN UHD, USA UHD, FRA/GER UHD, ITA UHD (tonemapped), JPN UHD, USA UHD, FRA/GER UHD, ITA UHD, ESP UHD (PQ), All 1080p BDs, HDTV, HDTV filtered

Best Audio:

Original matrixed stereo mix: Bandai JP 4K Blu-ray
Most discs include this track with comparable fidelity (which is excellent).

Dolby Atmos remix: Lionsgate US 4K / All the Anime FR 4K
6.1 remix (from Ghost in the Shell 2.0): KSM DE 4K / All the Anime FR 4K

All tracks on the Lionsgate US 4K replace the original ending song with the one heard on the English dub. As the Atmos track on the FR 4K is just a port, it also has this song replaced.

Additional Info:

Japanese 4K includes English dub and subtitles.
French/German 4Ks are not English friendly, with no dub or subtitles.
French disc includes the Atmos track, but the German disc does not.

Directors: Brian Taylor & Mark Neveldine

UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

UK 88 Films 4K Blu-ray in November

Best Video:

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray

More Comedy on Blu-ray

Director: Chris Columbus

Solid
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Disney 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Kaleidescape 4K Streaming

Disney 4K Blu-ray has encoding issues with bitrates dipping into 40mbps, and Kaleidescape has better encoding than Disney see caps 
Old Fox Blu-ray master is stretched and sharpened

Director: Jūzō Itami

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Criterion Blu-ray

Best Video:

Criterion Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Japan Toho Blu-ray

Director: Tsui Hark

Solid
UHD Blu-ray
Additional Info:

There is a newer 4K restoration by L’Immagine Ritrovata, which should be of better scan quality. The 4K restoration used on all current 4K disc releases stems from a low-quality Cintel scanner. The newer restoration has yet to be released on home video.

Director: Peter Faiman

UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Australia Cut: Australia Fox DVD

International Cut: Paramount Blu-ray

Encore Cut: Germany Winkler Film 4K Blu-ray, censored but good encoding

Upcoming Release:

US Paramount 4K Blu-ray, is the International US Cut and not the Encore Cut

Best Video:

Australia Cut: Australia Fox DVD

International Cut: Paramount Blu-ray

Encore Cut: Germany Winkler Film 4K Blu-ray, censored but good encoding

Best Audio:

Australia Cut: Laserdisc

Additional Info:

The film exists in three versions:
- the original Australian cut (~104 minutes at 24fps/~100 minutes at 25fps);
- the American/international version (~98 minutes at 24fps/~94 minutes at 25fps) trimming some exposition in the Outback first half of the film and some shorter extensions of a few seconds in the New York section, altering some of the dialogue – including censoring a "fuck" to "screw" – but featuring one additional dialogue extension not in the Australian version (a comparison of the two cuts can be found at Movie Censorship);
- the Australian Encore Cut (~95 minutes at 24fps/~91 minutes at 25fps) which uses the international version source so it already has those alterations but also removes approximately three minutes consisting of parts of two scenes featuring Mick grabbing the crotch of a cross-dressing prostitute and a later sequence when he does the same thing at a party to a woman with a deep voice (a comparison of the international version and the Encore Cut can be found at Movie Censorship).

Director: Martin Scorsese

Solid
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray > Paramount US, same black crush as the US disc but encoded by FiM and very good new supplements

Additional Info:

Paramount US 4K Blu-ray has FEL Dolby Vision 

Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray has MEL Dolby Vision

Director: W.S. Van Dyke

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Best Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray, 4k scan

Director: George Stevens

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Criterion Blu-ray

Best Video:

Criterion Blu-ray, 2K restoration

Director: Victor Schertzinger

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Universal Blu-ray

Best Video:

Universal Blu-ray

Director: Raoul Walsh

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Universal Blu-ray

Best Video:

Universal Blu-ray

Director: Frank Tuttle

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Universal Blu-ray

Best Video:

Universal Blu-ray

Edit History

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M_AvanshadyHydra Spectre

· last reviewed 6 months ago

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