Lady Bird

Score:  A-

Directed by Greta Gerwig
Starring Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Lucas Hedges
Running time:  93 minutes
Rated R

Long Story Short:  Lady Bird is a coming-of-age story featuring one of the leading actresses of the indie film world, Saoirse Ronan, and another behind the camera in Greta Gerwig.  Although the genre has seen countless attempts (mostly tiresome and all-too-similar, IMO), Lady Bird stands out thanks to a fantastic cast and smart and effective style, editing and script.  Highly recommended.


It's 2002, and Christine - or "Lady Bird" as she insists others call her - is another high school senior being prevented from reaching her potential.  That's how Lady Bird sees it, anyway, although her counselor at the Catholic school is skeptical about her dreams of escaping boring Sacramento for the dreamy independence of New York private colleges.  As she squabbles with her mother about the future, Lady Bird's status quo is upset during her last year in school.  She tries to start living the vision she has for herself, but in doing so strains old, reliable relationships with friends like Julie, and tests new ones with rebellious boys like Kyle.  Lady Bird finds herself thrown into turmoil as she struggles with the people in her life, trying to figure out not only who she is but who she wants to be.

Lady Bird has a great cast with some familiar faces, all of whom provide grounded performances.  Saoirse Ronan (pronounced "sir-sha"; whoever said SNL isn't educational programming?!) is tremendous as the lead, titular character.  While she's joined by her friends and family, the focus is entirely on her and she shines.  She does so well because she plays Lady Bird as just an ordinary girl; she (Ronan) rejects archetype and the pressures to fit one or another.  There is enough that's specific about her - the desire to go to a "cool" college in NY, her various social activities - yet the script mostly has her doing everyday things where her personality shines through.  Lady Bird loses her temper and screams, shrieks with joy, and - most commonly - struggles in silence figuring out how she does feel, and Ronan's impressive accomplishment is to make it all cohesive, a fully formed person.  Laurie Metcalf, playing Lady Bird's mother, has the most significant supporting role, and she does just as much with her part.  Sparks fly and the film is as its strongest in the pair's scenes together.  The film enjoys a number of other smaller but very well done performances, too, from Lucas Hedges' sweet boyfriend to Beanie Feldstein's best friend Julie, not to mention the quiet but influential father played by Tracy Letts.

Lady Bird is an outstanding coming-of-age film, one structured around a fairly standard story but enacted effectively with a great tone, script and style, in addition to the aforementioned stellar cast.  So many of these movies focus on the last year of high school for one or more young characters, too, but Lady Bird shows it all through a brand new lens.  The action starts off in a tense yet ordinary car trip with Lady Bird and her mother, introducing their powerful and realistic relationship that is the film's foundation.  This ends up being one of the longer scenes; although I was expecting the following montage of clips, introducing various aspects of Lady Bird's life, much of the rest of the film is composed of snippets strung together between the occasional longer set.  I don't recall seeing another film do anything quite like this, but it's very effective.  It keeps the pace humming and encourages you to remain attentive to detail; storywise, it allows the film to show "throwaway" moments that may not be important to the plot but are essential to an adolescent's daily life.  Importantly, it's also not done in a too clever or self-aware style, either.  This brings us back to Lady Bird's (and the film's) lack of an archetype - the film is not trying to guide you into feeling a certain way, and in fact, several times there is a jarring (yet natural) transition from elation in one scene to devastation in the next, much like real life.  As refreshing as both the emotions and the editing are, the script fortunately matches up with them.  The dialogue and acting is occasionally awkward; at first I thought it might be a weakness of script and/or performance, but it's simply capturing the awkwardness of teens in certain situations, and this becomes clearer as the film goes along.  Finally, Lady Bird has some good humor throughout, but I have to mention that it also has one of the funniest parts I've seen in a long time, featuring a football coach attempting to diagram the roles in a drama production.  You just have to see it.

***

Lady Bird is a triumph in many ways, not least in easily sidestepping most of the pitfalls of this well-worn genre, so often cliche-ridden and self-conscious.  It's not perfect; at times the abrupt editing style and naturalistic script just doesn't work so well, particularly early on.  It's both affecting and effective, but it's not built for quite the depth or endurance of impact that other dramas are able to achieve.  Still, those are just quibbles, and by any standard Lady Bird is a very well made film.  The style is perfect for telling the story of an average girl, not just because it creates such a vivid portrait of her and her world but also because it generates genuine compassion for her.  Perhaps other coming-of-age films might effectively explore unique angles or aspects of the genre, but when it comes to these films in general, I can't see any topping it (or even worth attempting).  Great way to balance the holiday movie excitement of Star Wars - try it out.




By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=55096958