La La Land

Plot[edit]

While stuck in Los Angeles traffic, jazz pianist Sebastian "Seb" Wilder has a moment of road rage directed at aspiring actress Mia Dolan. After a hard day at work, Mia's next audition goes awry when the casting director takes a phone call during an emotional scene. That night, her roommates take her to a lavish party in the Hollywood Hills, promising her that someone in the crowd could jump-start her career. After her car is towed, she walks home in disappointment.


During a gig at a restaurant, Seb slips into jazz improvisation, despite the owner's warning to only play traditional Christmas pieces. Mia overhears him playing as she passes by. Moved, she enters the restaurant and observes Seb being fired for his disobedience. As he storms out, Mia attempts to compliment him, but he brushes her off. Months later, she runs into Seb at a party where he plays in a 1980s pop cover band. After the gig, they walk to their cars and lament wasting a lovely night together despite their clear chemistry.


Seb arrives at Mia's workplace, and she shows him around the Warner Bros. backlot, where she works as a barista, while expressing her passion for acting. He takes her to a jazz club, describing his passion for jazz and his desire to open his own club. Seb invites Mia to a screening of Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and she accepts, forgetting a date with her boyfriend. Bored with the latter date, she rushes to the theater and finds Seb as the film begins. When the screening is interrupted due to a projector malfunction, Seb and Mia spend the rest of the evening together with a romantic visit to the Griffith Observatory.


After more failed auditions, Mia decides, with Seb's encouragement, to write a one-woman play. He begins to perform regularly at a jazz club, and they eventually move in together. A former bandmate of Seb invites him to be the keyboardist in a new jazz fusion band, which will give him a steady income. Although dismayed by the band's pop style, Seb signs on after overhearing Mia trying to convince her mother that he is working on his career. The band finds success, but Mia knows their music is not the type of music Seb wants to perform.


During the band's first tour, Seb and Mia have an argument: she accuses him of abandoning his dreams, while he claims that she liked him more when he was unsuccessful because it made her feel better about herself. Two weeks later, Seb misses Mia's play due to a photoshoot he had forgotten about. The play does not go as successfully as either hoped, with few people attending and Mia overhearing dismissive comments about her performance. Unable to forgive him for missing her play and their previous argument, Mia returns to her hometown of Boulder City, Nevada.


Seb receives a phone call from a prominent casting director, who attended Mia's play and invites her to audition for an upcoming film. He drives to Boulder City and persuades her to attend which she reluctantly agrees to. During the audition, Mia is asked to simply tell a story. In response, she sings about how her aunt, a onetime stage actress who eventually died from alcoholism, inspired her to chase her dreams. Confident the audition was a success, Seb encourages Mia to devote herself to acting. The two then recognize that they will always love each other despite what may come for their relationship.


Five years later, Mia is a famous actress and married to a different man, with whom she has a daughter. One night, the couple stumble upon a jazz bar. Recognizing the logo she had once designed, Mia realizes that Seb has opened his own jazz club. When he notices Mia in the crowd, Seb begins to play their love theme on the piano. A dream sequence unfolds in which the two imagine what might have been, had their relationship thrived along with their careers. Once the sequence ends, Seb and Mia acknowledge each other with a silent exchange of smiles before she leaves, each going their own separate ways.