La La Land: Film Review

To say that a movie nowadays impacts nearly every aspect of your being is rare. Any media that touches your core will generally remain there for a few hours at most, before something else occupies your mind and you cease to think about it ever again. I thoroughly expected La La Land to be one of these, if even capable of that depth, based on the rave reviews plastered all over social media, but I was pleasantly surprised. How, after all, could a musical within a movie/Hollywood love story be anything more than a few hours of light, satisfying romance?

What often lacks in what is considered the romance genre of movies is the ever-creeping reality of these situations, which generally draws me away from them before I’m even five minutes in. But who could refuse a good musical?

I’ll admit, the opening scene had me worried regarding the level of cliché this movie was about to be, but I was nothing but wrong. Essentially (beware, spoilers), two young residents of Los Angeles are drawn together by their passion for what they love, only to in the end drift away from another when these passions become successful careers with little flexibility. The beauty of this is, again, the aspect of reality, not neglected. They have to choose between their love, or their dreams, and both came to the conclusion that, while they loved and supported each other, sometimes following your dreams is more important.

While this struggle rings true for many people, whether it’s the life-long, dream-career choice or the perfect college hundreds of miles away, different people may value different aspects of life more than others: in this case, your dreams, or your dream person.

I left the theater with blurry eyes and a broken heart, not necessarily for Mia and Sebastian, but the gaping hole in our hearts that the movie remorselessly ripped open. The idea that sometimes the love of your life and the future of your dreams don’t quite overlap are demonstrated in this masterpiece by weaving that idea together with such a beautiful soundtrack and colorful scenery. “This is the dream! It's conflict and it's compromise, and it's very, very exciting!”- just as exciting as it can be painful.