La La land is accused of being a sexist musical by feminists as Seb is represented as the music artist whose career skyrockets, yet Mia is an observer to his success, which is conveyed through the whole film as one of their first interactions where she watches Seb play the piano in a restaurant. Mia struggles for her career and we only see her succeed at the end of the film, yet Seb’s career is handed to him by an old friend and he doesn’t have a huge struggle to become famous. When Seb surprises Mia at her house with dinner it’s clear that Emma Stone’s character is struggling and tired and feeling very pessimistic about her one woman show. Mia’s show is also controversial due to it failing and not making any profit as barely anyone showed up, but when we see Seb performing in his band the gig looks completely sold out. We mainly see Seb’s career and not Mia’s, despite us being introduced to her first and arguably being the more developed character.
It is also seen as a lover letter to many famous Hollywood moments, such as the “You Are The Star” mural which is outside the restaurant that Seb is playing at. Mia also pays a lot of homage to old Hollywood films such as Casablanca when she is giving Seb a mini tour of the Warner Bros’ studio lot. She also wants to become an actress because she used to watch old Hollywood films with her grandmother when she was a child, hence why she wants to be a Hollywood film actress. In one of her auditions she gets a call back, but its for a character in a TV show that she is only trying to get because she wants a job and money, not because she’s passionate about the show or the character she is auditioning for. We also see Mia get denied almost straight away at her callback.
Some audience members believe that the traditional and modern parts of the film (Seb and Mia) shouldn’t be combined as it makes the film confusing in what it’s trying to represent, whether we should appreciate and love traditional art, or move on with modern art forms. It doesn’t convince the audience; it just confuses them. Yet others believe that this is the point of the film and it’s meant to make you question what type of art you love and what you’re passionate about.
The film shows how different forms of art represent who we are as people, Seb and Mia have different tastes in art, Mia is more modern and doesn’t listen to jazz, but she loves traditional Hollywood films such as a Casablanca due to her childhood memories, mis acts more adult than Seb many times throughout the film as she is realistic and more pessimistic with her career dreams, unlike Seb who is optimistic and forced to grow up and settle with a job that he doesn’t love because of the music he now has to create.
Film Studies 