Lady Bird has been a critical darling with five Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Director. The unconventional writer, director and actor’s style proved to be wildly successful despite not her following a traditional path, like going to film school. The film, loosely inspired by Gerwig’s formative years, is a love letter to the city of her childhood.
Advertisement
When Lady Bird eventually leaves for college-and leaves her mother behind-she feels the gap in her heart that her home once filled. You see the hurt in her eyes when she learns that Lady Bird told her boyfriend she’s from “the wrong side of the tracks”, and feel the inherent love as she watches her daughter sleep.
Gerwig instills a natural flow from scene to scene, skipping through the final year of Lady Bird’s high school life at a comfortable pace. In fact, it is one of the best-reviewed movies of all time, with a 99% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Lady Bird” perfectly executes the experiences teenagers go through while transitioning into young adulthood and the emotions that go along with them. Lady Bird is amusing and poignant for all the right reasons.
Lady Bird is still on general release across the UK. I first saw this film with my sister and mom over Thanksgiving break which ended up creating a ideal storm of tears and laughter. Lady Bird angles for a good role in the senior class stage musical but finds nothing but irritants.
As hormones rage and Christine searches for acceptance from her peers, especially popular classmate Jenna (Odeya Rush), her friendship with Julie becomes strained and she pursues romance with an older boy, Kyle (Timothee Chalamet), who has yet to master the art of seduction.
SAOIRSE Ronan has told how A-lister George Clooney trampled on her mother’s dress during her first Oscars ceremony. I can look at a picture my sister took and see something completely different than what she intended.
Advertisement
Tracy Letts is a warm, encouraging presence as her father, and Lois Smith is a hilarious as a straight-talking nun, but it is Laurie Metcalf who steals the film, superb as Lady Bird’s tough, no-nonsense mother, but hinting at a reservoir of unsaid affection underneath. The bickering between Lady Bird and Marion isn’t engaging because of any extraordinary factor, but rather the opposite; it is an ordinary yet nuanced illustration of every argument that has ever happened between a mother and her child. As the tower bells toll in the distance, I appreciate Lady Bird for putting into actuality some of my experiences, making me laugh, cry and feel an even greater sense of love for both my new home in NY and my forever home in California.
