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● Plot Summary 2h 09m Comedy · Drama

La La Land (2016) — full plot summary

Directed by Damien Chazelle, La La Land unfolds across 2h 09m of comedy. This page covers the story beat by beat. For the ending, see the dedicated ending explained page.

● TL;DR

Mia, an aspiring actress, serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions and Sebastian, a jazz musician, scrapes by playing cocktail party gigs in dingy bars, but as success…

The story

La La Land is a 2016 American musical romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Damien Chazelle. It stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone as a struggling jazz pianist and an aspiring actress who meet and fall in love while pursuing their dreams in Los Angeles. The supporting cast includes John Legend, Rosemarie DeWitt, Finn Wittrock, and J. K. Simmons.

Setting & tone

La La Land is set in United States of America and works primarily in English. Tonally it sits in Comedy, Drama, Romance, drawing on the conventions of each while filtering them through Damien Chazelle's direction.

Why people search for this plot

Search interest in the plot of La La Land tends to spike around questions about narrative ambiguity, the meaning of specific scenes, and how secondary characters connect to the main arc. Our editorial team tracks those queries and updates this summary as new questions emerge — see the FAQ on the main movie page.

● Spoilers ahead?

Read the ending explained

A scene-by-scene breakdown of the final act, the closing shot, and what it all means.

La La Land ending explained →