Ten years ago, Damien Chazelle’s “La La Land” was released to the public. Classified as a musical/romance, the movie hit the theaters hard. According to Azusa University, the movie’s gross revenue was estimated at $340.5 million by 2017 alone.

Actors Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling’s chemistry throughout the movie was resoundingly perfect by following the story of two people who will do whatever it takes to accomplish their dreams. “La La Land” depicts a young female actress named Mia (Stone), who dreams of one day performing in Hollywood and an aspiring jazz musician named Sebastian (Gosling), who dreams of opening his own jazz bar. Both are daunted by their futures. The movie is set in Los Angeles, the ideal location for both character’s dreams to come true.

After the two coincidentally meet several times, they fall in love. Both inspire the other to be ambitious for the pursuit of their dreams full-time. Slowly, both character’s careers start to take off, crowded schedules, signs of emotional neglect and what felt like a stagnancy in their dreams starts to appear. These tensions eventually lead to them breaking up. Suddenly, the movie shows that five years have passed; Mia is now a famous actor and Sebastian is seen setting up his jazz bar, which was only fueled by Mia’s belief in him. 

The end illustrates the two separate lives of Mia and Sebastian reunited for a brief moment when we see Mia and her husband enter “Seb’s” jazz bar. In this emotional moment, while Sebastian plays a song on the piano that throughout the movie is “their” song, we see an imaginary life of what could have been had they stayed together, but with the ending of the song, reality seeps back into the two separate figures. The two lock eyes, acknowledge the other’s dream having been successful and the movie is over.

Unlike other movies, “La La Land” doesn’t end with the classic in-love trope. Instead, the two, although having accomplished their dreams, lock eyes. This gives one last acknowledgement of what once was and leaves the audience with a resonating feeling of sorrow and crushing fear for the sacrifices accomplishing dreams can require. 

“When you get this [role], you’ve got to give it everything you got,” Sebastian said. “Everything. It’s your dream.”