SPOILERS AHEAD

I recently watched Damian Chazelle’s critically acclaimed La La Land the other day. Being a musical and movie buff, it has all the trappings of an amazing movie. It’s beautifully shot, the color palette is bright, the leads have amazing chemistry (this being their third time appearing onscreen together), the orchestration and lyrics are emotional and effective. What I found so interesting about the movie is how grounded in reality the film is despite it being for “the fools who dream.”

Much of La La Land’s appeal is that it is a nostalgic homage to the old studio-helmed musicals of the 1940s and 50s. Big budget films from MGM, RKO, 20th Century Fox that brought us such stars as Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Gene Kelly, and Cyd Charisse. These musicals were grand and are classics to this day. They were bright and colorful and they existed in a heightened universe that exists within reality. For example, Singin’ In the Rain (1952) was a backstage musical movie about the making of movies. It showcased the early trials from the transition from silent films to “talkies” and the musicals that came to the forefront when sound was added to film. But these films never wanted to be brought back down from the clouds to the real world. This is where La La Land makes its departure from simple homage to its own kind of film to be critiqued on a different level.

An overarching theme to the movie is dreams. Sebastian and Mia are dreamers. Sebastian dreams of bringing back the dying art form of jazz music by opening his own jazz club. Mia dreams of finally getting her big break. Even the title of the film adds to the dream theme. “La La Land” is both the nickname of Hollywood and a phrase that people say condescendingly about those who live in their own dreams as opposed to reality. La La Land does not shy away from bringing their two dreamers to reality.

Mia is seen going to auditions between her barista job with little success. She has coffee spilled on her, her casting agents are distracted by lunch or their phones, she is cut off while reaching her emotional climax in her audition, etc. Sebastian, on the other hand, struggles with being forced to play Christmas carols for uninterested restaurant patrons or funktastic 80s keyboards in a lame cover band. Mia decides to write a one-woman play but it fails miserably. Sebastian, in order to make money, takes up an offer from an old friend Keith to join his pop jazz band even though he is a jazz purist and he hates the synth keyboard he plays every night. Chazelle wanted his audience to realize that despite its many callbacks to the past, this story is contemporary. Mia and Sebastian are free to dream as much as they want but they must also realize that they need to live in the reality that is Hollywood, the music industry, and current culture. They are not Cinderella stories by any means. One of the funniest jokes to me about this is when Sebastian honks his horn outside of Mia’s apartment and Mia jumps into the car with him for a date. We are in a long shot as we see the car drive away when we hear Mia scream “IT’S A ONE WAY STREET!” Sebastian reverses back into the alleyway as a garbage truck drives on his right of way. It’s moments like this that ground the two into reality.

The other thing that grounds the film into reality is the fact that Ryan and Emma are both relatively untrained for a musical of this scale. Gosling performed pop songs back in the 90s in The All New Mickey Mouse Club” alongside Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears and he dabbles in instruments here and there. Stone made her Broadway debut as Sally Bowles in the revival of Cabaret. However, Sally Bowles is a performer in a seedy cabaret in WWII Germany. She’s not meant to be amazing. Compare this to the leads of the old Hollywood musicals. They were trained in ballet, tap, and jazz from young ages. They took singing lessons constantly. They were polished because it was a necessity. They didn’t have the luxury of technology to do millions of takes given how grand the numbers were that they staged. They used long takes and long shots to show off the talents and elegant choreography of their stars.

In the few songs that are sung in the movie, it is clear that singing is not either of the stars’ fortes. They’re a bit flat, they don’t sustain notes for very long, and they don’t have much power in their voices which is evident in their vocal strain in certain songs. The dance sequences mask their limited dancing ability a little better. Both Gosling and Stone have a great sense of rhythm and seem to float when  they are dancing (this is attributed to the choreography of Emmy-nominated Mandy Moore). But we don’t see either of them with perfect lines or busting out triple pirouettes or other complicated moves. As for piano, Gosling trained for months in order for Chazelle to capture his hands tickling the ivories. Both Gosling and Stone, like their characters, had to work hard to keep up with the rigors of the movie because the director chose to film many musical numbers in long takes and long shots They spent weeks rehearsing with the choreographer in order to make the moves seem effortless and natural. Their hard work pays off in the end and Mia and Sebastian dance together in perfect sync. Ryan Gosling no longer looks like the “gangly monkey” that he proclaimed himself to be.

For me personally, the sequence that stuck with me the most was the film’s epilogue. Mia wraps up an audition for a star-making role. Sebastian is confident that she got the part and they address what their future holds as the film is being shot in Paris. Sitting on a bench outside of the Griffith Observatory (where they had their first date), the two lovers declare that they will always love each other but come to an understanding that they must part  in order to achieve their dreams. We then fast forward 5 years. Mia has become the successful movie star she had always dreamed. She is happily married to another man and they have a daughter together. While out on a date, they take a detour to avoid traffic and grab dinner. They hear music nearby and Mia realizes that Sebastian’s dream has come true- he has opened his own jazz club.

They lock eyes for the first time in years. Sebastian then sits down at the piano and plays their theme. We are then transported back in time. We see a different life for the two lovers in which they end up together, married with a child, and they both have seen their dreams come true. We see Sebastian never giving Mia the cold shoulder and them kissing passionately at their second introduction (if we’re counting the freeway honk-flip off exchange as their first introduction). We see Sebastian blowing off Keith’s offer to join his band. We see him applauding Mia’s sold out play. We see them together in Paris and Sebastian playing jazz music in a club. But alas, this is all just a dream. The song ends and we see that Sebastian is still by the piano onstage and another man is still sitting next to Mia. As Mia leaves the club, she gazes over at Sebastian and they share a knowing smile.

It is at this point, the dreamers have stopped dreaming. Even though at one point they loved each other, and even if they still do love each other, that does not mean they are not happy with how things have turned out. Their dream was never each other because despite this being a romantic musical, the real romance is between the lead characters and their respective dreams. It’s a bittersweet ending, but it is the right one for this movie.

This sequence gave me very mixed emotions. It is very similar to the “Expecations/Reality” scene from Marc Webb’s (500) Days of Summer (2009). It’s polarizing because you want to root for the happier outcome even when you know that it will never happen. The outcome in which the two romantic leads find their happily ever after with each other. But similar to (500), the movie’s romance was never between the characters. “This isn’t a love story. This is a story about love.” This is where La La Land diverts from the old Hollywood musical ending- a grand kiss and a chorus swells and the camera does a crane shot into the horizon. Reality does not care about your romantic dreams. Reality cares about the dreams you are willing to put in the work for. Life is complex and heartbreaking but in the end all you can do is work hard and hope that somehow your dreams can become your reality.