''La La Land'' (2016 film)- Review

Directed by: Damien Chazelle
Released: 2016
Country: United States

Genre: Musical, Romantic drama

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Review

When it comes to dreams, it is hard to chase them and it easy to give them up. It is easy to be swayed by disappointment but when one has a firm determination, one can easily reach that goal and- as we see in ''La La Land''- if there is somebody- just one person- by you when you are chasing your dreams, if there is somebody initiate that light of inspiration in you, that journey becomes easier.

''La La Land'' is the story of Mia Dolan (Emma Stone) and Sebastian Wilder (Ryan Gosling). Mia has a day job as a barista but aspires to be an actress. She left university and came to Los Angeles so that she could land a role in a movie or a TV series. She attends auditions after auditions and is rejected over and over again, but she is still firm in her determination. Sebastian, on the other hand, is a jazz pianist who aspires to keep jazz alive. However, as he does not play according to the conventional methods, he is fired from his job. Over the course of the next few months, he comes across Mia again and again, and as they start falling in love, they inspire each other to follow their dreams. Mia inspires Sebastian to start eventually his own jazz club where he will be able to play the kind of music he loves, and Sebastian inspires Mia to write a play where she will act. But as time passes the collision of reality and dreams happens...

I loved ''La La Land''. I really, really did. From the very beginning of the film there was a sort of lively charm as dreams and reality kept colliding (although not always in a positive way). I loved the songs, the production design, and the score. The screenplay is amazing, and Damien Chazelle does a really good job directing the film. Everything in the film has a vintage, 1950s touch, and had it not been for the mobile phones and modern cars that the characters use, I would have thought it was set in the 1950s.

I loved the very essence of the story, of how we should follow our dreams and how we should not think of what others think or whether others care about what we are doing, but that we should be solely focused on what we are trying to do, and that should be our aim, that should be our dream, and no matter how hard reality might be, we need to focus on our dreams instead of falling prey to the world around us that might cause us to fall prey to competition, to the constant insecurity of what others might think of us and our work.

At the center of the story, of course, there are two lovely characters: Mia and Sebastian. The chemistry between the two of them is heartwarming and beautiful. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling give undoubtedly powerful performances. I think all of us, to an extent, can relate to these two characters as throughout our lives we go through what these two experience throughout the film: powerful dreams and insecurity, intimidated by the competitive world around us that often forces us to forget who we really are and to abandon our dreams as, according to that world, the ''reality'' is so much different than the dreams. But for many of us, our dreams are what we strive to turn into reality, in spite of what those around might feel and might say, and just as Mia and Sebastian were there for each other as they tried following their dreams, we also find a person- or several people- in our lives who become the driving force for us, inspiring us to reach our goal.

4.5 out of 5