While discussing Emma Stone‘s highly-touted performance in La La Land (Summit, 12.9), Gold Derby‘s Tom O’Neil calls it a partial “problem” given that Stone is playing a deliberately two-dimensional role…perky and happy and dancing around…you don’t get a lot of gravitas and soulful reflection.” Not true. Mostly she’s coping with soul-crushing rejection, despair, anxiety and frustration in Damian Chazelle‘s musical, and it shows on her face in every frame. Stone’s only 100% “perky and happy” moment is when she goes out with her girlfriends to a Hollywood party in Act One; there are also a pair of romantic dance numbers but that’s not “perky,” dude.

Aesthetic reservation: Using a spazzy, pixellated computer camera isn’t a great idea, and those below-the-chin angles of Tom O’Neil and Pete Hammond aren’t all that flattering.