Comedy · Drama · Romance
La La Land
American
2016 · Directed by Damien Chazelle · 129 min
Loading…
Comedy · Drama · Romance
American
2016 · Directed by Damien Chazelle · 129 min
Meaning, unpacked
Central idea
The film is about the cost and reward of pursuing a dream, and about how romance and ambition can both feed and compete with each other. It can be read as a love letter to Hollywood that is honest about what the dream demands.
What it means
Two dreamers meet in Los Angeles, fall in love, and chase their careers. The chase pulls them apart, and in the end they share one last look across a club and an imagined life they never lived. La La Land is about what a dream costs and what it gives back, and whether romance and ambition can feed each other or must compete.
Success here isn't only something you win. It changes you. Each lead has to commit, and commitment drags them in different directions, so the love story matters less as something to keep than as something that shapes who each person becomes. That's why the ending feels bittersweet, not simply sad. The film also plays with old against new, as Sebastian reveres traditional jazz and the film adores old musicals. It loves Hollywood but is honest about what the dream demands. Maybe the real point is that some dreams come true because you let something else go.
Why it mattered
Damien Chazelle had developed the idea for years without finding financing. The success of Whiplash gave him the leverage to make a big, original movie musical on his own terms. That was rare: a story written directly for the screen, not adapted from a stage hit, aimed at mainstream audiences.
It also brought back the widescreen, Technicolor-style look. Cinematographer Linus Sandgren used the wide CinemaScope frame for fluid, choreographed long takes, so you see the performers rather than the editing. Bold primary colours and magic-hour light recalled old musicals without hiding the real Los Angeles locations. Songs and music tracked the relationship, with recurring melodies reshaped for jazz club, pop and orchestra.
Before anyone tells you what to think: what did you make of it?
Log in to rate it and leave commentsIt takes one click with Google or an email link. You come straight back here.
Rate it, keep your notes, and find the next film.
Free, no ads. Your journal, your lists, a Cine Guide that remembers you.
Create your free spaceThe film opened the Venice Film Festival in 2016, where Emma Stone won the Volpi Cup. It won all seven of its Golden Globe nominations. At the Oscars it earned fourteen nominations, tying the record, and took six awards, including Best Director for Chazelle and Best Actress for Stone. It helped re-open the door for original, large-scale movie musicals.
It will always be tied to the Oscar night mix-up, when it was announced as Best Picture by mistake and Moonlight was named the true winner. Today it's a beloved modern musical and a frequent way into the genre. It isn't beyond debate: some find the singing slight, and others question its story of a devoted white pianist set on saving jazz, and how it frames Black musicians. That conversation is now part of how the film is discussed.
What happens
Five years on, Mia is a successful actress with a husband and a child. She walks into Sebastian's jazz club by chance. He plays their theme, and a fantasy shows the life they might have shared before reality returns.
The last image
Across the club, Sebastian and Mia trade a small smile and a nod, and he counts in the band as she leaves.
What it says
The ending is bittersweet, not tragic. Both got the dreams they chased, and the love shaped who they became. The fantasy gives the ache its due, and the smile accepts that some dreams come true because you let something else go.
Or follow an idea from this film
See what influenced it
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
The clearest source of La La Land's joy, with Gene Kelly's dance and a story about Hollywood adapting to change.
See what influenced it
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
Demy's colour-drenched, fully sung love story shows where Chazelle found his mix of romance and wistfulness.
Continue the director
Whiplash (2014)
Chazelle's earlier feature tackles ambition and music with far more severity, showing the same craftsmanship in a very different register.
Compare another approach
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019)
Another modern film that offers both nostalgia and critique of Los Angeles and its dream industry, with a very different tone.
Follow the idea
All That Jazz (1980)
Bob Fosse's musical looks at a performer consumed by ambition, a darker answer to the question of what the creative life demands.
