La La Land: The "Myth" of Verisimilitude

La La Land is a 2016 musical-comedy-drama. The film centres around Sebastian and Mia

as they struggle with their dreams as well as their relationship. However, due to the
fantastical nature of musicals (that being bursting out into song and dance with surreal sets),
many people unjustly unaffiliate themselves with the film, its characters and the themes and
claim there to be a lack of verisimilitude. This is a viewpoint I cannot share, as one scene in
particular demonstrates a very peculiar sense of verisimilitude that not only required an active
viewpoint of the film, but also helped shape my affiliation for a particular character of the film.

The scene in question is the “What Could Have Been” scene, where Mia and Seb meet after

5 years apart. For simplicity's sake, I’m going to focus on everything after Seb starts playing
the piano.  As soon as he starts playing the camera pans towards Seb and the lights dim. We
then cut to Mia and the same happens with her. This is a subtle reminder to the audience that
this is a very meaningful/personal song for the two. We are transported back to an earlier scene
of the film where Seb gets fired for playing the song and blows Mia off. However, now we see
things differently, with Seb embracing and kissing Mia, with a triumphant score playing as they
do so.

This to me is the best demonstration of verisimilitude in the film. It’s not what’s shown, but the
meaning behind it. A lot of people (myself included) have had an attraction to someone and

has thought about what could have been if we had just changed one thing. This scene is a
phenomenal representation of that and makes these characters feel more real. The scenes

takes us through multiple moments from throughout the film, but with each being slightly

different. An interesting point of notice would be that after Mias play is successful, we get

painted backdrops, similar to that of both stage plays and musicals of old. I see this as the two

not having any other memories to change and thus have to make some up. This again adds a

sense of realism in this surreal part of the film.

For this reason I affiliate myself with Seb, as you can see that he still has unaddressed feelings
towards Mia, but knows he can’t do anything about them. He has hopes and dreams that he

wishes to accomplish, but he has to make sacrifices in order to achieve them. I see him as the

most human character in the film. Furthermore, this scene requires an active viewpoint of the film

to truly understand the nuance. What I mean by this is the fact that anyone can say this is what
could have been. Most people can say this is what the two wanted. But not many people seem

to grasp the fact that this scene is the most realistic scene in the film, showing the human side of
these characters in this alienated, fantastical world.