All the hype about La La Land is justified

I hereby join the chorus in praise of Damien Chazelle's Hollywood musical La La Land, and what at talented writer-director he's turning out to be. I recognize that in some ways this movie is a great way for the film industry to recognize and congratulate itself, but let's also recognize that this is a daring venture. When was the last original Hollywood musical? From the opening sequence, a choral dance # staged on a traffic-jammed LA freeway (how did they get clearance to shoot this scene?), which recalls many great opening #s on stage and screen - somehow I thought immediately of the telephone # in Bye Bye Birdie (the pun-like title of La La Land may echo that as well) and onward - it's a story of two young people - Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in LA, each trying to make it, he in jazz and she as an actor-playwright - who have a "cute meet" - two, actually - and gradually become a star-crossed couple. The cinematography is daring and beautiful, w/ many visual homages to LA esp at night from the well-known moviescapes of Griffith Park, some really smart dialogue (I love their lengthy strained dinner conversation that ends with the blast of a smoke detector), and of course some fine musical duets. Neither has a great voice, neither is a great dancer - which just adds to the charm and pseudo-realism. The closing sequence, which I won't give away except to say it explores with grace and humor the whole span of their relationship and what might have been, is a killer, sure to bring tears to your eyes. Quibbles? OK: there's no single show-stopping #, in fact none that I can even recall a day after seeing the film - that's something it would need if this is to make a reverse course journey onto the stage, which I expect it will; for a movie that talks a lot about jazz, there's no real jazz # either, which seems to be a missed opportunity. But altogether it's a movie that draws heavily and consciously on Hollywood musical traditions and makes out of these traditions, clichés we might say, something contemporary and lively and entertaining. I'd thought maybe this movie was being over-hyped; it's not - the hype is justified.