La La Land: A 10-Year Retrospective
Even 10 years later, Damien Chazelle’s La La Land stands as an emotional ode to the fantasy and folly of dreamers. Full of hope, humor, love, and loss, the film has achieved legacy as a modern masterpiece even beyond the musical genre. In the movie, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone tap into the deepest emotions of the human experience as they tap dance around Los Angeles. And their performances are only the tip of the iceberg: There is no aspect of the movie that underperforms, from the music by Justin Hurwitz, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul, to the widescreen cinematography of Linus Sandgren, to the surreal production design by David and Sandy Reynolds-Wasco, to colorful costumes by Mary Zophres. A massive cultural phenomenon when it came out, La La Land was nominated for an astounding 14 Oscars, winning Best Director, Best Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Score, Best Original Song, and Best Production Design. But was this movie just a trendy relic from 10 years ago, or does it still stand a truly timeless work of art?
La La Land: 10 Years Later
Of all the themes in the movie, I was struck by the sobering message of how hope and despair intertwine, how dreams and relationships can die and be reborn, and the cost of change. As Emma Stone’s Mia sings in her song “Audition”:
“Here’s to the ones who dream
Foolish as they may seem.
Here’s to the hearts that ache.
Here’s to the mess we make.”
Earlier in the movie, Ryan Gosling’s Seb jokes about being “a phoenix rising from the ashes.” It’s a throwaway line, but it represents the very heart of hope: Understanding that the “mess we make” is the price of pursuing our dreams. Jazz is “conflict and compromise”, but at the same time the players have to stay true to their own ideas as well. Similarly, Seb and Mia help each other develop to grow into who they need to be, even if that means it’s without each other. La La Land is as much about fantasy as it is about folly, and the cost that always comes.
La La Land came out in 2016, when I was 20 years old and trapped in a bleak engineering college. From the first trailer I was excited because of my love for music, musicals, movies, Ryan Gosling, and Emma Stone. I was ecstatic I knew because this movie was curated in a lab specifically for me, a budding bisexual musician who needed something that could express the colors I had been repressing. It seemed like a such a perfect and joyful movie to share with someone special. But I couldn’t find a friend who was actually interested in the movie (thanks for nothing, engineering college). At the same time, my mom said she had something planned for us and I needed to come without complaining. Well, it turns out that my mom was actually just as excited for La La Land as I was. So when we pulled into the cinema and realized we both secretly wanted to see the same thing, the experience quickly became a defining moment in our relationship, and one of the core movies that we could rewatch together forever.
Having seen this film five times when it came out (almost always in cinemas), revisiting La La Land after so many years felt like seeing it through new eyes. It’s like catching up with an old friend who’s grown sadder, sager, and more resplendent with age. In the time since La La Land premiered, I transitioned from engineering to the humanities, moved across the world, and started a side project in film criticism. I began reflecting on the friends and musical career I left behind, and reconnecting with the roots from my childhood. This introspective search for self-identity, self-truth, and self-expression is exactly the core of Chazelle’s movie, and it hit me doubly hard in 2026. Because to me, rewatching La La Land now isn’t just revisiting a movie turning 10 years old. It’s re-opening a living archive of my emotional maturation, reminding me of who I was then, who I now, and who I could become next, while warning of the sacrifices that must come along the way.
The Music and Film History of La La Land
The music of La La Land has become iconic. Led by Justin Hurwitz, the soundtrack is a collection of catchy earworms, with a score so tightly intertwined that the songs often bleed into one another. This distinct, cohesive sound can make individual tracks hard to distinguish, but for a film about the “oneness” of a creative partnership, this sonic blending serves the narrative perfectly. Hurwitz, Pasek, and Paul create a mix of solos, ensembles, motifs, and call-and-response counterpoint melodies that interact throughout the movie as if they were their own living characters.
I remember watching “Another Day of Sun” for the first time in 2016. My mom and I were both slightly taken aback, but once we quickly surrendered to the movie, we had a blast. The bombastic opening number is clearly designed to weed out the weak, and if you can handle that, then the film is so endlessly rewarding. For a cinephile, the movie also weaves a rich tapestry of musical history. Chazelle and Hurwitz don’t just reference the past; they build upon it. The key influences are undoubtedly Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967). You can find similarities to La La Land in their melodies, as well as in the unapologetic use of color, bittersweet ending, and even visual references. Chazelle also took from the American classics: the big sweeping cameras and long takes of Singin’ in the Rain (1952), the dream ballets of An American in Paris (1951), the delightful duets in Top Hat (1935) and The Band Wagon (1953), and of course the kaleidoscopic crowd choreography of Busby Berkeley (1930s).
Released in an era dominated by the gritty, hyper-realistic cinema of Christopher Nolan, La La Land was a breath of fresh air and a bold revival of the bright musical genre. It paved the way for “musical-adjacent” films like Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver, proving that audiences were still hungry for rhythm and movement, and eventually a resurgence of full-on movie musicals like Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story (2021) and Jon Chu’s Wicked (2024).
The Visual Language of La La Land
As much as I love the music and themes of La La Land, the visuals of the movie are what really stood out to me on this viewing. 10 years ago, I knew far less about filmmaking, film history, and film criticism than I do now. Watching in 2026, I was astonished by how the seamless collaboration of the Wascos’ production design and Sandgren’s cinematography creates a heightened reality that reflects the characters’ emotions. A comparison could be Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), which also used exaggerated artificiality to depict the emotions of romantic tragedy, but the sleek style and musicality of La La Land take the film in a whole new direction.
From the opening dance number on a congested highway, the film establishes a playfully artificial world. The production design is a masterclass in color theory, with Mia’s vibrant candy-colored dresses popping against a Los Angeles that feels equal parts gritty and dreamlike. The lighting is dramatically dynamic, shifting and shadowing mid-scene to shine spotlights on the singers as lovers fly through the stars as silhouettes. Like a sunny counterpart to the terrifying German Expressionism films of early cinema history, La La Land warps Los Angeles around the characters’ elevated emotions. The purpose isn’t to be real; it’s to be felt.
While clearly being a modern homage to the stage-style of the classic musicals from the 1940s and 1950s, the candy-colored artificiality of La La Land also helped set the stage for later surrealist Hollywood films like Barbie‘s plastic world and The Substance‘s own version of LA.
La La Land: To the Next 10 Years
The immaculate visuals, music, choreography, and themes would mean nothing without the electric chemistry of Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. This being their third collaboration, they possess a shorthand that feels lived-in. Compared to their playful energy in Crazy Stupid Love, their relationship here is far more mature. Mia and Seb aren’t just falling in love; they are navigating the friction between their personal ambitions and their shared devotion. The writing is elevated by the real magnetism of the actors. Even as Gosling and Stone continue through their illustrious careers in real time, every time we watch this movie, we can see these screen legends at one of the most pivotal times in their lives, archived forever in cinema history.
What also makes La La Land a timeless masterpiece of romance is how it changes as the viewer changes. Every rewatch brings a new interpretation. This time, the “Epilogue” fantasy sequence almost broke me. As a kid, I saw it as a beautiful “what if,” but now I see it as a sobering look at the mistakes they made. I can see the moments where ego won over empathy. The ending isn’t just about “the one who got away” – it’s about the version of yourself you had to leave behind to become who you are now. The epilogue asks “What if everything went right?” and the answer is: “But it never does”. Even in that fantasy, Seb isn’t able to start his club in LA. Sacrifices must always be made, and that realization is a fundamental message for maturity and growth.
La La Land is more than just a brilliant mix of comedy, romance, and tragedy. It’s a musical, it’s a memory, and it’s a mirror. La La Land has shaped my 20s and helped me understand young adult life. Through tears and triumphs, I’m excited to see what I’ll take from it in another 10 years.
You can stream La La Land on Amazon Prime Video! When was the last time you watched this film? Let us know your thoughts on social media @bsb.insider!
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