Why Are Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone so Perfect in Everything They Do Together?
Updated Jan. 15 2020, 3:11 p.m. ET
There are some things that just go together perfectly and we really don't know why. Like peas and carrots. Peanut butter and strawberry jam. Marshmallows with melted chocolate and graham crackers. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.
Seriously, try and find me a better on-screen couple from the past decade or so with a more consistent electrifying chemistry that these two have together when they're in a movie together. I'll watch anything if the two of them are starring in it, even if it's a drama about a pencil factory.
Thankfully, the movies the two of these ridiculously talented stars have been featured in had much more interesting premises (unless lead-based writing utensils are sort of your thing), let's just take a look at the best moments from the three films they were all in together.
Crazy, Stupid, Love
First off, we need to just talk about the ensemble greatness that this cast packs. You've got Steve Carrell, who casually rolls out of a car in the beginning of the movie. You've got Julianne Moore, who plays Carrell's wife who's fallen out of love with the dude. Marisa Tomei also makes an appearance in the film, as does a little actor who managed to make Footloose a cool movie — I'm talking about the Hollowman himself, Kevin Bacon.
What's crazy is that as amazing as everyone's performance in the movie was, along with an excellent script (I seriously didn't see that she was Steve's daughter at the end), Emma and Ryan totally stole the show.
Yes, there were comics and cartoons and many longform articles dedicated to Ryan's abs in the film and how much of a heartthrob he was. But what trumped that was how absolutely darling of a couple the two of them were.
When they stayed up all night talking, you felt like you were experiencing one of those magical nights with someone yourself. When they did the Dirty Dancing jump, you wish there was a pair of big strong arms to hold you up as "The Time of My Life" plays in the background. The two are just utterly delightful and I've rarely rooted for two people more.
Gangster Squad
Talking about films with excellent ensemble casts, Gangster Squad has an assortment of talent that isn't anything to sneeze at either with Josh Brolin, Sean Penn, Michael Pena, and of course, Ryan and Emma.
Sure, we loved them as a romantic comedy duo in Crazy, Stupid, Love but that same on-screen chemistry definitely transferred over into a completely different genre. The scenes with Ryan and Emma were arguably the best parts of Gangster Squad, and this is coming from a dude who loves movies set in old-timey Hollywood with Tommy guns.
La La Land
The film was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, and sure, a lot of it had to do with the fact that it was clearly created by the hands of a more-than-capable director, and it was a deftly handled musical romance packing slick visuals and heartstring-tugging plot points.
But the chemistry between Ryan and Emma was the star of the show. To sell the idea that two people are madly in love with each other, and to be hit with the full weight of palpable tragedy when things just "didn't pan out" for some reason is what made La La Land so memorable.
In fact, I, along with other people who I viewed the film with, were flabbergasted when these two characters didn't end up together. Their chemistry was so strong that I wasn't really buying that they weren't "meant to be" and that they couldn't make a long distance relationship work out.
Or maybe it's just because I'm such a firm believer in Emma and Ryan being together on camera that I couldn't accept them not being an item as a final eventuality. Here's hoping they're in even more projects in the future because they're just a delight to watch.