What makes you want to live? Some of you may know the various interests and hobbies in which I generate passion for. I also tend to draw comfort, excitement, and meaning in my life through themes. Themes are the headings over which my goals can be classified. While a short term goal may simply be an objective like, “get task A done,” it is completed in order to satisfy something bigger. Several “themes” that I ponder is: love, regret, dreams, and humanity. Some headings (like humanity) are obviously bigger than I so there is not copious amounts of things I can do except ponder. Movies such as “La La Land” feed into this pondering. Undoubtedly, this film draws some of the most raw emotion that not only makes you glad to be a part of this “humanity,” but it lingers with some of the bitter melancholy that I have come to appreciate/embrace.

Love. It’s what plants crave. Okay, wrong quote. It’s what (most) humans need. The love story, while edging toward predictability (I mean the seasons aren’t just to tell you what day it is), is still one that’s heartwarming (bring you to tears). Gosling and Stone’s performance bring about both feelings of love and regret that were reminiscent of my own life. The “nostalgic” approach that is built along with Chazelle’s stylings bring about joy. Self-admittedly, I did notice the self-indulgent style, and thought that it occasionally hindered a scene. However, the pure passion put into this project carried it past the two hour mark. It’s effectiveness lingers past the theater experience.

Dreams are perhaps one of the most intriguing and perplexing human concepts. The oft quoted, “here’s to the fools who dream” implies that the dreamers are foolish. Everything about this film revolves around dreams and the decisions we make to chase such. Whether Gosling fervently talks about jazz, or Stone is repeatedly going to audition after audition, it just seems to be more head in the clouds nonsense. I myself pursue art and feel that the choices I make are hopeless endeavors. However, the arts, the dreams that we pursue that seem out of reach, help escape (transcend) the mundane aspects of human life. Pablo Picasso once said that, “The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” Doesn’t indulging in our dreams have the same effect? La La Land is not just the culmination of musicals, movies, and art, it’s collectively a huge fever dream.

La La Land is a huge colorful creation filled to the brim with detail that will more than likely require multiple viewings on my part. It’s not quite the masterpiece that I was yearning for going in (Gosling’s voice is still a tad questionable for me/other things), but it undoubtedly had me thinking, marveling, and mesmerized.