30 Greatest Best Picture Oscar Nominees Of The Last Ten Years

Now forever associated with the infamous Best Picture mix-up, La La Land is also one of those films that is cool to hate, but really shouldn't be.

The backlash was probably driven by the film's popularity and exposure at the time of its release, but there's a good reason this film made such a big splash: it's really, really good.

Of course it's got its problems. The singing and dancing are unexceptional and the two lead characters (Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone) don't always work - he can be tiresome, she can be inactive - but there's still a hell of a lot to love in Damian Chazelle's love-letter to film musicals.

As both a dazzling, colour-soaked and exuberant visual masterwork and an affecting, chemistry-filled romance with one of the best film endings of recent times, La La Land is a powerful, passionate tour-de-force for Damian Chazelle that expertly mixes style and substance.

The accusation that this film is empty and soulless is really pretty ridiculous, since the film does have a real heart and is in fact more emotionally involving than many of the musicals it pays tribute to.

It didn't ultimately win like it was expected to, but it would've been a completely worthy winner if it had waltzed off with the big prize.