Where to Watch:
8/10
FilmFascination Rating
Lady Bird at first seems to be a simple coming-of-age movie but within a few minutes turns out to have something unique and fresh. When the emotions come into the picture it gets complex and the movie hits hard. It is evident that Greta Gerwig (director and writer of the movie) took a lot of inspiration from her own life growing up in Sacramento for her incredible directorial debut.
Christine MacPherson (Saoirse Ronan) is an angsty, confused and difficult teen who is a senior at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic high school (which obviously has the nickname Immaculate Fart among the students). Christine gives herself the name “Lady Bird”. It is in quotes as she insists that “it’s given to me, by me” in a musical play audition. Her self-given nickname appropriately matches her character— girlish yet eagerly anticipating womanhood. Like any teen movie, Lady Bird really wants to get as far away from home as possible. She believes that she has outgrown Sacramento — as Gerwig must have felt when she herself went off to college — and wants to get into a prestigious college in “a city of culture”, somewhere on the East coast. But honestly, the movie turns out to be a beautiful homage to her hometown Sacramento.
Within a few minutes of screen time, you will understand that the casting is perfect with outstanding acting by Saoirse Ronan (played a teenager with precision), Laurie Metcalf (Lady Bird’s mother Marion MacPherson), and even Tracy Letts who plays a calm father Larry MacPherson. Ronan has dyed her hair red for the role and did not wear makeup to cover her acne; she said she saw the film as “a really good opportunity to let a teenager’s face in a movie actually look like a teenager’s face in real life.”
Marion is angry, possessive, and controlling around Lady Bird. Mostly because she can’t figure her out and is not able to find a way to help her. Marion and Lady Bird’s strong personalities make them lash out at each other occasionally.
But what makes their relationship beautiful is their ability to switch from intense disagreement to innocent closeness between a mother and daughter in mere seconds, and sometimes back again.These scenes particularly are well-observant, beautifully played, and elegantly directed. Gerwig spent years writing the screenplay. The mother-daughter relationship is so centered on the movie that at one point it had the working title ‘Mothers and Daughters’.
Marion is concerned about Lady Bird’s lack of preparedness to deal with the realities of life. The reason she is continuously trying to pull her down is that she doesn’t want to lose her. She just has a hard time expressing how much she loves her. As Danny (Lucas Hedges), one of Lady Bird’s love interests, says “she’s warm, yeah but she’s also kind of scary”. She shows her warm side, especially in a touching airport scene which brought a tear to my eye when she departs ways with Lady Bird. Lady Bird on the other hand like any teenager does not know how much her parents are doing for her comfort. For a parent, you just have to smile through the problems in front of your children.
In a way, it is about how impossible it is for teenagers to imagine the emotional lives of their parents. It is also difficult for them to acknowledge that sense of loss or how emotionally disturbing it could be when they see their child leave their house. Saying goodbye to someone whom you’ve seen grow and develop in front of you for eighteen years needs a kind of self-sacrifice.
The movie shows everything that an adult turning teenage house goes through. It is daring to show Lady Bird’s first kiss and even her first naïve sexual experience.
The movie is beautiful because of Greta Gerwig’s artistic precision. She told Sam Levy, director of photography on the film, that she wanted the film to feel “like a memory”. The song ‘This Eve of Parting’ by John Hartford sets the mood of the film.
In an interview with American Magazine, Gerwig reflected on the importance of particularity to Lady Bird- “I wanted to make a movie about home and what home means.” One of the goals of the film, she says, was to challenge the minds of high schoolers, who often deal with stereotypes. The realism of the film is hammered down through all the performances. Gerwig puts a lot of personality into every character on the screen making everyone important to the plot. Even the script is exceptionally well-written with incredible wordplay and realistic verbal fights.
Then there are also displays of the tenderness of genuine goodbyes to your best friend while leaving for college that hit right in the heart. It gives you so many messages that will make it worthwhile and the film makes a special place in your heart. Now you might have seen all this but it was not quite like this. It is not about what the film shows but much about how it is shown.
It is the small heartwarming things that make the movie special. Lady Bird might not be perfect but it seems so much personal to me from trying to make your parents proud and striving for them to just say that they are proud of me to the people we think are friends with just to realize that they don’t really care about you. In fact, the moment where Lady bird realizes this and starts being herself by going to prom with her actual best friend ‘Julie’ was one of the most touching scenes in the movie for me.
The pace of the movie might be the only thing that viewers could potentially be dissatisfied with. The movie could have afforded to be a bit leisure with all the relationships and emotional scenes. Nevertheless, it is successful in sending the message it wants to send with quite an impact because Greta Gerwig has this talent of making small scenes and showing so much story from them.
Favourite Quotes
Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson: Why can’t you say I look nice?
Marion McPherson: I thought you didn’t even care what I think.
Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson: I still want you to think I look good.
Marion McPherson: Okay, I’m sorry. I was telling you the truth, do you want me to lie?
Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson: No, I mean, I just, I wish that you liked me.
Marion McPherson: Of course I love you.
Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson: But do you like me?
Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson: The only thing exciting about 2002 is that it’s a palindrome.
Larry McPherson: Hey, I’m like Keith Richards. I’m just happy to be anywhere.
Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson: Hi Mom and Dad, it’s me, Christine. It’s the name you gave me. It’s a good one. Dad, this is more for Mom. Hey, Mom, did you feel emotional the first time that you drove in Sacramento? I did and I wanted to tell you, but we weren’t really talking when it happened. All those bends I’ve known my whole life, and stores, and the whole thing. But I wanted to tell you I love you. Thank you, I’m… thank you.
Marion McPherson: I want you to be the very best version of yourself that you can be.
Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson: What if this is the best version?
Sister Sarah Joan: You clearly love Sacramento.
Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson: I do?
Sister Sarah Joan: You write about Sacramento so affectionately and with such care.
Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson: I was just describing it.
Sister Sarah Joan: Well it comes across as love.
Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson: Sure, I guess I pay attention.
Sister Sarah Joan: Don’t you think maybe they are the same thing? Love and attention?
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