Written and directed by Damien Chazelle, La Lan Land tells the story of Mia (Emma Stone), an aspiring actress, and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), a dedicated jazz musician, who are struggling to make ends meet in a city known for crushing hopes and breaking hearts. Set in modern day Los Angeles, this original musical about everyday life explores the joy and pain of pursuing your dreams.
Gosling’s Seb is a musical purist who has just spent his last penny trying and failing to open a jazz club in the city. He meets Mia, stuck behind her car in this same traffic jam, while she looks through her pages for an audition she’s got later in the day. He pulls out to overtake with much male aggression; she gives him a glare. They are destined to meet again.
Sebastian and Mia are drawn together by their common desire to do what they love. But as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.
Dir: Damien Chazelle, 2016, USA, 2hr 8min. PG-13
Stars: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Rosemarie DeWitt