“Alright, I remember you. And I’ll admit I was a little curt that night.”
“‘Curt?’”
“Okay, I was an asshole. I can admit that. But requesting “I Ran” from a serious musician, it’s just, it’s too far.”

I will never, ever tire of this movie.

I gave my brother a few movies to choose from to watch this past Friday night, and he chose La La Land (nice choice, little brother). He’s been getting into the piano lately, and when I showed him a week or two ago on YouTube the continuous take of Ryan Gosling playing “Mia & Sebastian’s Theme,” I think that definitely piqued his interest.

This movie feels magical to me. It just has this feel-good power that it exhibits proudly to anyone and everyone who sits down to watch it (if you’re open to it).

From “Another Day of Sun” to “City of Stars” to the emotional and heartfelt proclamation that is “Audition (The Fools Who Dream),” we as an audience are taken on a wonderful ride through Los Angeles and its bright colors, allure of dreams, and rampant freeway traffic.

Emma Stone & Ryan Gosling… COME ON. I mean, really… COME ON!

You can’t help but fall in love with the two of them as Mia & Sebastian. Each of these characters represent a very relatable pursuit of the artistic dream: Mia dreams of being an actress; Sebastian dreams of owning and running an authentic jazz club.

We laugh, we cry, and we dream with our heroes as they tackle the City of Angels (and Stars) and all of its promises.

I always ramble about the time I met Damien Chazelle when I talk about anything Chazelle-related, but please indulge me once more.

Damien Chazelle’s mom teaches history at my college (now alma mater). To repay a long-standing favor he owed the school, one night, we had a Whiplash Q&A with Damien Chazelle at our school’s TV studio. I was smiling ear to ear when he entered the room. I was already a huge fan of Whiplash, and was able to gush about the film to him in person. He was very appreciative about my words, thanked me for coming — I was able to weasel in one more (stupid) question: if he could tell me any movie that inspired him, much in the same way that Whiplash inspired me at that point in my life. 

“The Umbrellas of Cherbourg…” and he went on to describe that lovely, lovely film that as you may know, was a primary influence for La La Land. At the time of the Q&A, La La Land wasn’t filmed, and was only recently announced. I don’t even remember if he acknowledged if they had done any casting yet, but he said that his “next project was nearly underway.”

I kind of wish I got a picture with Damien Chazelle, but every picture I did see that popped up on Facebook or Instagram from that night, he looked so awkward and a part of him probably wished that no one asked him to take any pictures. He kind of had a “handler” with him, so for people who took photos, it was basically “Hi, Damien!” *snaps photo* “Okay, next!”

So I’ll always be grateful for the few minutes I had chatting with Damien Chazelle. I’d love to have another conversation one day about La La Land, First Man, jazz music, and maybe the French New Wave, as I’ve dabbled in that a bit since I first met him and graduated from college!

Anyway, most of this wasn’t about La La Land, but I do know that I will love this film forever with all my heart — no matter how basic that may seem. 

“Here’s to the fools who dream!”

(And I’m one of those fools)