By Kassadi Moore
The Spectator
The release date for “La La Land” on DVD and Blu-ray is just under two weeks away. The hit musical came home with six Oscars after being nominated for fourteen. “La La Land” also won seven Golden Globes, breaking the record for the most Golden Globes won by a movie. Emma Stone won Best Actress, while her lead counterpart, Ryan Gosling, did not win his nomination for best actor in the Oscars. Both Stone and Gosling won Best Performance by an Actor/Actress in a Motion Picture in the Golden Globes.
Curtesy of LionsGate
The musical can be described as two millennials’ journey to find their American Dream, but not the tradition American Dream. Traditionally, the American Dream was considered a couple living a long, happy marriage in a big house, with a big family and a white picket fence. This is not the version of the millennials’ American Dream. “La La Land” opens with many cars and people stuck in traffic on a bridge in California. The camera pans over the various cars as the characters vent their struggle of leaving their loves to live their dream in California. “Without a nickel to my name, hopped a bus, here I came. Could be brave or just insane,” said two dreamers. These characters left their young loves, and took the risk to work in professions that are less than reliable. This, of course, introduces the theme that Mia and Sebastian, played by Stone and Gosling, would face.
Mia is an actress, well an aspiring actress. At the start of the movie, she is working at a coffee shop on a movie set. When she isn’t brewing coffee for those who “made it,” she is in horrendous auditions. During the first audition the movie shows, Mia walks in with a prominent coffee stain on her shirt, as she emotionally auditions for the part. The directors are too busy to even pay attention to her audition. She proceeds to walk into the hallway with the other hopefuls, all wearing the same shirt, same hair, same pants. She is lost in a sea of black and white.
Curtesy of Lionsgate.
Sebastian appears to be living in the wrong decade. He is an avid jazz enthusiast who aspires to open his own jazz club. His boss wants him to play soothing Christmas music in the background of a restaurant. The idea is repulsive to him, as his argues with his boss, and eventually gets fired as his love of jazz overpowers his need for money.
And there they are: two people, who are obviously in love with each other because they are the main characters in a major movie, with two improbable dreams. This is where the story becomes what all millennials need, not what they want. In most movies of the same caliber, the star-crossed lovers would fall into some improbable situation where their jobs and their love-lives would line up perfectly. “La La Land” doesn’t make that mistake. The only thing that is more improbable than successful careers in acting and jazz, is love lives lining up with those careers. Mia and Sebastian make their millennial-revised, American-Dream decision. They separate and pursue their careers. “Here’s to the ones who dream, foolish, as they may seem. Here’s to the hearts that ache. Here’s to the mess we make,” sang Mia in her audition that led to her stardom and separation from Sebastian. Both are very success in their jobs, but never end up together, because thinking you could have it all would just be living in la la land.
Curtesy of Lionsgate.
“La La Land” will be released on the DVD and Blue-ray on April 25th, but is currently available through iTunes and Amazon Video.
