La la land~a study of ambitions and wishes
La La Land is the latest masterpiece ever put on cinemas which will no doubt be the one of the best films of 2016. Brought to life by the young, aspiring and talented Damien Chazelle, La La Land will be regarded as his best work since Whiplash. The film also won many awards and nominations at the 90th Academy Awards, bringing home six oscar trophies as a result. On the surface, La La Land is a feel-good christmas movie that studies the ideologies of ambitions and wishes. Ambitions and wishes are the key aspect for what makes the film so terrific. Chazelle's films have used mostly ambitions as the motif for his films. In Whiplash, how far would someone go to achieve their dreams? What is the cost for practicing and practicing until their hands bleed until they perfect it? Whereas in La La Land, we see our protagonists struggle to bring their dreams to reality. Dreams are what gives our protagonists, Mia and Sebastian meaning in the lives. It drives them to make their visions of their world come true, the question is how will they be able to realise it? What is the cost of realising your own dreams until they become reality?
Dreams vs Reality
La La Land portrays what do people usually dream of through its musical numbers. Take the opening scene in La La Land where everyone seems to be stuck in a traffic jam. It shows the audience how mundane and stressful for these people to be stuck in a jam knowing that they will be late for work, rushing to get to somewhere, and whatever their reasons are etc. You can even hear the monotonous sounds of cars honking that are bleeding your ears dry. Until..
In a fantasy, everyone is having fun dancing on the freeway instead of getting into their lives. In reality, everyone is struggling with their lives because they can't seem to score a good break. Back on the freeway after the musical number ends, we cut to Mia who is constantly failing in several auditions and trying to practice her lines while stuck in the traffic jam. We later cut to Sebastian who is upset at Mia for not moving her car in the traffic. Besides that scene, we have another musical number which is involving Mia and her friends going to a party together. The shots for this scene are so colourful and fantastic. Director Damien Chazelle clearly is a master at shifting the mood, tone and the colour palette for this film. However, after the musical number ends, we then to shift to having Mia's car being taken away as a result of illegal parking. This scene where Mia is forced to walk home clearly demonstrates the effect of getting a reality check. Reality is often disappointing and sometimes too bleak to live in, parents especially try to keep their children away from reality in fear of disappointing them, sometimes when we have overly high hopes for life, it can destroy us because we never really get what we always wanted in life. That is how life operates, they keep you in a dream-like state when young which by the time you are older, life beats you down and sucks you dry to realise the obstacles you need to go through before your dream comes true.
The opening of La La Land perfectly captures the essence of what our dreams should be like. Dreams are colourful, crazy, fun, whimsy and basically where you want to go to escape from reality. In a busy road full of cars, what was supposed to be mundane suddenly becomes magical and fun as everyone comes out from their cars to just have a good time. Everyone wants nothing but the best for themselves, they wanna live a good life, get married, have kids and make their families proud. Nobody wants to struggle and live a mundane life which is what their reality tends to portray, a black and white reality check given to those people who are stuck in their fantasy.
Ambitions vs Wishes
Mia aspires to become a successful actress whereas Sebastian's ambition is to make his own music and start a club. Their ambitions ultimately are the main reasons why fate brought them together which is to help realise their ambitions together. After several failed auditions, Sebastians encourages Mia to write her own play and Sebastian begins working in a new Jazz club where he regularly plays music. However, their ambitions to become who they truly want to be ultimately strains their relationship. Mia and Sebastian eventually get caught up in their dreams until they didn't have enough time to spend with one another. Sebastian's former classmate invites him to join his Jazz Fusion band but plays a pop style that does not suit him. Despite that, he reluctantly signs the contract to join the band after overhearing Mia trying to convince her mother that Seb is trying his best in his career.While he finds success, Mia is still struggling with her play as it did not really turn out that well during its release. They argue which Mia believes that Sebastian is giving up on his dream whereas Seb believes that Mia likes him more when he was poor. Their relationship begins to fall apart as a result of putting their time and devotion more into their careers and less focus on their relationship. During the ending of the film, La La Land's emotional weight is at its peak as we witness Sebastian and Mia have fully achieved their dreams but are unable to have each other. Despite their success, they constantly have doubts which is beautifully portrayed through a dreamlike-state where Mia and Seb abandoned their dreams to be with one another. It is sad to see that they have to give something up for the other to thrive but that is how life really works, life never shys away from being cruel to you. If you have a dream and wish to protect it no matter the cost or you want to abandon that dream for something else, it is your choice that will you bring you your happiness. Dreams will not come to life if it stays a dream, wishes never truly satisfy us but will only bring suffering, it is how we choose to live our dream that makes the cost worth our time.
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