La La Land, an Ode to the City of Dreams

It took me forever, but I finally saw La La Land. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are a wonderful pair, and they portray the struggle of being an artist in Los Angeles with musical numbers and sass.

This musical is so modern. I think of musicals like Singing in the Rain and Hello Dolly, which are classics that I will always love, but there's something wonderful about watching a musical that takes place in my lifetime. Los Angeles is a melting pot of all ethnicities, genres, and artistry. There is such diversity and that is shown in this show, especially the opening number.

Mia and Sebastian show the long process of living in Hollywood, working every day for a career with few openings.

Mia is working at a coffee shop on the Warner Brothers lot, auditioning in between shifts and networking with her friends at flashy pool parties on the weekend. Her montage of auditions is both funny and sad. It's crazy what actors are put through and Mia is no exception.

Sebastian is bouncing from job to job, playing show tunes in restaurants and suppressing his dramatic jazz songs. When Sebastian forgives an old friend and joins a modern jazz band, he finds fame and fortune. But while he has at last found a steady job, he has given up his dream of opening a jazz club.

Seeing someone so passionate give up everything he's fought for changes the way Mia sees him, their relationship, and their dreams.

The truth of the matter is, it's difficult to follow your dreams. It takes years of blood, sweat, and tears. It takes heartache and compromise.

I would like to believe you can just scrape up some courage to get through the doubt and come out the other side with an amazing success story, but that's not always the case.

As Mia explains to Sebastian, some people just aren't the lucky ones. Some people have to be realistic and find a different dream.

But thankfully, Mia's dream makes it through. She helped Sebastian reach success and after she goes home to recover from her one woman play, he drags her back for an audition and returns the favor. Mia's audition is beautiful and vulnerable and her last attempt to salvage her acting career.

While we don't see the beginning of Mia and Sebastian's journey, we do get to see the middle and a bit of the end. We see them struggle and compromise and work for their dreams, then the results of that hard work a few years down the road.

As perfect as Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are together, Mia and Sebastian do not have the perfect love story. They get their happy ending, but separate from each other. Sometimes people can help you reach your dreams, but they don't stay in your life. That doesn't make the dream any less important.

And in the end, when Mia reimagines how her life could have gone if Sebastian had stayed in it, she knows there is more than one outcome that could make her happy.

This story shows two people doing everything they can to achieve their dreams, and maybe they don't end up together but that's the beautiful thing about life. Sometimes amazing people come into our lives just when we need them and show us how to be amazing too.