Lady Bird

photo courtesy of dailyedge.ie

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

     Greta Gerwig, an accomplished actress, screenwriter, and director, makes a confident solo directorial debut with Lady Bird. The movie follows Christine McPherson (Saoirse Ronan), who ardently insists on being called “Lady Bird.” Together with her best friend Julie (Beanie Feldstein), Lady Bird tries to negotiate the tensions of being a teenage woman in early-2000’s Sacramento, taking her first steps into romance, coping with the desire to escape her small-town surroundings, and learning to relate to her parents. Lady Bird may not be everyone’s style, but I would be remiss if I didn’t add my voice to (literally) everyone else’s: Lady Bird is a short, sweet, understated triumph.

photo courtesy of indiewire.com

     What’s most striking about Lady Bird is the sense of authenticity that permeates the movie. It reads like a person’s real experience, recounted honestly and in full, populated with characters and events that resonate with reality in charming and often surprising ways. This is a world where people shop at Goodwill, where parents fall asleep in their chairs while their kids are up to no good, where teenagers’ insecurities come up to the surface in awkward and recognizable ways.

     Lady Bird herself, brought to life by the immensely talented Saoirse Ronan, is one of the most refreshingly interesting characters I’ve seen in a while. She’s simultaneously rebellious and nostalgic, in one breath arguing contentiously with her mother, in the next bonding with her over a sappy book-on-tape. Her contradictions—which, in another character, might come off as disingenuous—are instead disarmingly frank.

photo courtesy of variety.com

     Laurie Metcalf plays Lady Bird’s mom, and their relationship fuels much of the movie’s emotional core. There’s both warmhearted humor and profound sadness in the way their mother-daughter relationship works itself out, each of them loving the other so dearly but feeling unable to approach her. Many of the movie’s other relational dynamics (including the bond between Lady Bird and her troubled father) orbit around this central one.

     Greta Gerwig’s screenplay makes all the difference in distinguishing Lady Bird as a fresh take on the (otherwise cliché) teenage coming-of-age story. She writes fantastic dialogue, which is responsible for the movie’s sharp wit, quirky sense of humor, and compelling characterizations. And Gerwig seems almost disinterested in plot; rather than focusing on getting somewhere else, Lady Bird lets its characters sit where they are, getting to know them by their everyday actions and reactions. Those moments—when Lady Bird forgives someone, speaks her mind in front of someone, allows someone to help her, plays a prank on someone—are what gives Lady Bird its pure cinematic brilliance. 

Watch the trailer here.

photo courtesy of vox.com