Lady Bird – A Movie Review

In Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig reveals herself to be a bold new cinematic voice with her directorial debut, excavating both the humor and pathos in the turbulent bond between a mother and her teenage daughter. Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) fights against but is exactly like her wildly loving, deeply opinionated and strong-willed mom (Laurie Metcalf), a nurse working tirelessly to keep her family afloat after Lady Bird’s father (Tracy Letts) loses his job. Set in Sacramento, California in 2002, amidst a rapidly shifting American economic landscape, Lady Bird is an affecting look at the relationships that shape us, the beliefs that define us, and the unmatched beauty of a place called home.

Director: Greta Gerwig
Writer: Greta Gerwig
Stars: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts, Lucas Hedges, Timothée Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein, Lois Smith, Stephen Henderson

Rating: R (for language, sexual content, brief graphic nudity and teen partying); Run Time: 1h 34min; Genre: Comedy, Drama; Release Date: 1 December 2017 (USA)

Man, am I running behind. Me and Lay went to see this several weeks ago. I liked it, Lay didn’t. I am not surprised. It is definitely not his type of dialogue heavy movie.

Lady Bird is an interesting but conventional coming of age story. It is a story of rebellion, the search for self identity and love. While common in teenage dramas and coming of age tales, Lady Bird does so in a smart and interesting way that results in a film both amusing and heartwarming.

The film features the themes of self identity in the character of Lady Bird, portrayed wonderfully by Saoirse Ronan. From the get-go we see her as a character who hates the place she lives, Sacramento, and imagines herself in a different life somewhere more ‘cultured like New York’. It’s that sense of furthering herself and finding who she is that drives the actions of the character throughout the film. Ronan portrays Lady Bird in a fearless, even ‘badass’ way that really adds a layer to the film when eventually that person almost dissolves and we understand the character on a deeper level.

Of course, this is also a film about love and more specifically the concept that love is attention. The core relationship between Lady Bird and her mother Marion played by Laurie Metcalf is the central story of Lady Bird.

Overall, Lady Bird was a very interesting exploration of the genre and a discussion about the teenage years as the years of exploration, experimentation and the search for self identity. But also the message that regardless of what happens there is always the anchor in the form of your home/families that was beautifully established here via the relationship of Lady Bird and Marion.

I give it a 7, Lay a 4. What do you give it?

(No Ratings Yet)

Loading...