20 non-traditional Christmas movies to watch this year

17. La La Land

Watch if: You enjoy musicals, classic Hollywood movies, or shipping Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling.

What it’s about: A struggling actress (Stone) and struggling pianist (Gosling) meet, fall in love, and break up in modern-day Los Angeles. They sing, dance, and talk about jazz a lot, too.

Connection to Christmas: Moderate: Christmas serves as the catalyst more than anything else. The first third of the film or so is set around the holidays. After a demoralizing audition, Mia and her friends go to a Christmas party at some industry exec’s house. On her way home, she stops in a club where Sebastian is experimenting with new songs instead of playing carols, as he was hired to do. He’s quickly fired and blows off Mia’s attempt to compliment his music, and their Sam and Diane dynamic is born.

Why it makes for good holiday entertainment: In real life, spontaneously bursting out into song is only socially acceptable at Christmas. People are willing to indulge it because the season is just so merry and full of goodwill. Maybe that’s why musicals seem to be so popular around the holidays. Expressing yourself through song just feels right, or at least not completely wrong.

La La Land also taps into the melancholy that’s so ubiquitous this time of year — and not just because the couple splits up. Sure, Mia is wistful when she crosses paths with Sebastian five years after leaving him, but sadness is palpable throughout the whole film. Mia is frustrated with her stalled career and begins to suspect that she’s not as talented as she’d like to believe. Sebastian is lonely and only finds success when he’s willing to humiliate himself. The two have a respite in each other, but it’s a temporary one.

Same goes for the holidays: it gives us a needed respite from the world, but one that can’t last.