20 Best Movies Of 2017

3. La La Land

Damien Chazelle's modern musical breathes fresh life into the genre, taking inspiration from both the Golden Age of Hollywood and Jacques Demy, but melding them together with his own visual style and rhythmic tempo them to create something new.

It may not have actually taken the top prize at the Oscars, but there's a reason no one was surprised when La La Land was initially read out as the Best Picture winner, because it would've been a wholly deserving one. It's both a love story and a tale about following your dreams and the sacrifices necessary to realise them, with Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling showcasing their amazing chemistry as aspiring actress Mia and jazz lover Sebastian, and the film is wholly, lovingly, devastatingly relatable on both fronts.

The songs range from the sunny song-and-dance numbers, like Another Day of Sun, to the haunting Audition and the melancholy City of Stars, while the film's LA setting is beautifully captured by Linus Sandgren. It's a highly emotive film, which leaves you wanting these characters to achieve everything, is bursting with life and colour, and offers an immensely pleasurable cinematic experience alongside.

Its blend of magical fantasy and hardened reality serve to make hearts both soar and break, and the final montage cements its status as a musical masterpiece.