If You’re An Artist, Then This Movie Is Required Viewing

Go See La La Land

Here’s why:

1. It’s for dreamers: The movie deftly combines real-world creative roadblocks and disappointments with a fantastical element (yes, singing songs…!) that perfectly captures the inspirational desires in your spirit.)
2. It’s for those with a passion: The two leads (Mia, played by Emma Stone and Sebastian, played by Ryan Gosling) grapple with their day jobs and paying the bills, versus “making it.” And how to be honest with yourself and what you want to do.

“This is the dream! It’s conflict and it’s compromise, and it’s very, very exciting!” — Sebastian

3. It’s about pursuing art vs. functioning in reality: What does it mean to go after it with everything? What does it mean if you don’t? What does it mean if you compromise, even a little and are successful with your compromise?

How are you gonna be a revolutionary if you’re such a traditionalist? — Keith

4. It’s about failing. And how it may be worth it. There’s a plot point in the movie where Mia does something kinda ridiculous that stretches her financially and creatively…when it was released it failed, miserably, but led to a big break. You never know what will land and with whom.

“You could just write your own rules. You know, write something that’s as interesting as you are.” — Sebastian

5. It’s for understanding that happiness could take many different forms. A few scenes show a life of coulda’s and shoulda’s but it really doesn’t look that different than how things turned out. It’s a powerful, ambiguous statement about trying too hard to define success.

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I’m Josh Spilker, a writer and author. I blog about the writing process at Create, Make, Write and write about everyday life at Vaguely Feel. For more like this, follow this publication:

Create, Make, Write