Dancing Through Dreams and Heartbreak: A Love Letter to La La Land
Hey, it’s me, Reaper, back again. I realized I haven’t ranted about any anime or movie for a long time now, so here it is, a rant on one of my favorite movies…
There are movies. And then there are movies—the ones that rip your heart out, sprinkle a little jazz on it, and hand it back to you with a melancholic smile. La La Land isn’t just a film; it’s a dreamy, toe-tapping fever dream wrapped in neon lights and heartbreak, like if Whiplash and The Notebook had a jazz-loving love child. Damien Chazelle gave us a romance that pirouettes between fantasy and reality, and spoiler alert: reality wins.
So, let’s grab a cup of nostalgia, queue up City of Stars, and dissect this cinematic masterpiece that made us believe in love—only to snatch it away faster than you can say “audition scene.” Catch a chair or something, for this Reaper is going to sing you poetry(Well, I’ll excuse my pledge not to write this line until the end of Valentine’s for just this time!)
Plot: A Symphony of Almosts
Mia (Emma Stone) is a struggling actress making lattes for Hollywood’s who’s-who while running late to auditions where no one bothers to look up. Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) is a jazz pianist with a crippling devotion to his craft and an allergy to compromise. They meet. They clash. They dance in the stars like some celestial love gods. And for a moment, life is a musical where dreams seem possible.
But reality is a cruel director. Sebastian joins a band (shoutout to John Legend’s lowkey villain arc), Mia’s play flops harder than my WiFi at 3 a.m., and their love story spirals into a bittersweet symphony of ambition, sacrifice, and “what could have been.”
Themes: The Jazz of Life (and Love)
1. Dreams vs. Reality
Mia and Sebastian are walking contradictions. They believe in their dreams so hard they bleed for them. But while Hollywood loves a success story, it also loves to crush them first. They fight, they struggle, and in the end, they achieve everything—except each other.
2. The Price of Ambition
Success isn’t free. It costs late-night arguments, missed performances, and the gut-wrenching realization that love might not always fit into the bigger picture. Mia and Sebastian’s relationship is the collateral damage of their aspirations. And that? That’s the real tragedy.
3. Nostalgia and The Art of Remembering
From its old-school Cinemascope visuals to its golden-age Hollywood nods, La La Land thrives on nostalgia—not just for classic films but for the love we almost had, the moments that almost were. It’s a love letter to the past, beautifully aware that the past never comes back.
Mia and Sebastian: The Art of Falling and Failing
Their relationship is a dance—sometimes elegant, sometimes messy, always passionate. From their tap-danced meet-cute (cue A Lovely Night) to their heartbreaking goodbye, Mia and Sebastian show us what love looks like when it’s real, raw, and riddled with dreams too big for two people to hold at once.
The Rise: When Love Feels Like a Musical
When they fall, they fall. They dream together, push each other toward greatness, and waltz under a violet sky that only exists in movies and daydreams. Mia believes in Sebastian’s jazz obsession. Sebastian believes in Mia’s talent. It’s the kind of love that makes you want to sing in traffic (even if everyone around you honks in judgment).
The Fall: When Reality Starts Playing Its Own Tune
But reality doesn’t come with background music. Sebastian gets lost in the very thing he swore he’d never do—playing music he doesn’t love, wearing suits that scream “sellout.” Mia, tired of rejection, finally breaks. They fought so hard for each other’s dreams that they forgot to fight for each other.
And just like that, their duet becomes a solo.
Memorable Scenes: The Ones That Broke Us
1. The Planetarium Scene – Love in Zero Gravity
The moment Mia and Sebastian take flight, we all collectively lost our grip on reality. This scene isn’t just visually stunning—it’s a metaphor for love at its peak, untethered from logic, weightless in its possibility.
2. The Argument – When Love Feels Like a Cage
There’s no dance number here. No swelling orchestra. Just two people who love each other desperately, realizing that love isn’t always enough. Sebastian’s “Maybe you liked me better when I was failing” cuts deeper than any musical number ever could.
3. The Audition – The Story That Changed Everything
Emma Stone’s The Fools Who Dream isn’t just a song—it’s Mia’s soul, laid bare. It’s every artist’s cry into the void, every failed attempt, every rejection letter turned into something beautiful. And when she gets the role of a lifetime? We cheer—until we remember what it costs.
4. The Epilogue – The Life That Almost Was
In an alternate universe, Mia and Sebastian make it work. They kiss instead of walking away. They build a life filled with jazz clubs and shared morning coffees. But that’s not this universe.
Instead, we get five minutes of what could have been, set to the most gut-wrenching music ever composed. And when Mia smiles at Sebastian one last time, we shatter.
Why La La Land Is Special (Even When It Hurts Like Hell)
1. It’s A Love Story That’s Not About Love
At its core, La La Land is about passion—not just for a person, but for life, art, and the impossible dream of making it. It tells us that sometimes, love is real but not right. That timing can be cruel. That dreams demand sacrifices we may not be ready to make.
2. The Music Transcends Time
From the melancholy hum of City of Stars to the electric rush of Another Day of Sun, the soundtrack is stitched into the film’s very fabric. It’s not just background noise—it’s the pulse of the story, telling us everything we need to know even when words fail.
3. It’s Devastatingly Real
Most romance movies sell us a fantasy. La La Land sells us the truth—that sometimes, the person who changes your life isn’t the one you end up with. And that? That’s the most beautiful heartbreak of all.
Final Thoughts: We’ll Always Have La La Land
It’s been years since La La Land first made us fall in love with love—and then reminded us how much it can hurt. But that’s the magic of it. It’s not a perfect love story, but it’s a true one. And whether you see it as a tragedy or a tribute to the dreams that make us, one thing’s for sure:
It’s a film that will play in our hearts forever.
Welcome to Seb’s.
