Lady Bird (2017)
2017
R
93 Minutes
Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson, a fiercely independent teenager, tries to make her own way in the world while wanting to get out of her hometown of Sacramento, California & to get away from her co...
User Review
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Lady Bird is a lovingly crafted coming-of-age drama. "Another one? Seriously. Will these ever stop?" is probably what you are thinking. The answer is simple, the process of coming-of-age is relatable. A relatable story is one that viewers will warm to. Lady Bird is no different. It packs heart, plenty of character and subtle witty humour. A young girl, who titles herself "Lady Bird", is brought up in a catholic school and is at the stage of moving onto college. As with other synonymous films of this sub-genre, our teenage protagonist experiences their first love, family conflict and identity crisis. All part of the long process of growing up. This is nothing new, you may find its unoriginality to be a flaw but if it isn't broke...don't fix it. Also the short runtime results in a despondent narrative due to the amount of content being rammed into it. Despite the meaty plot, Lady Bird just works. So simple, yet incredibly effective. Addressing problematic themes of religious upbringing, materialism, guilt, wealth and the all important identity crisis when being a teenager. Gerwig may not be the most experienced director, but she definitely puts herself on the Hollywood map now. Nothing too fancy, a few quirks here and there but her reliance of the static camera position allows the actors to own the screen. She enables them to bring out the characters by simply giving them the whole screen. They are fundamentally the vital aspect. The characters themselves are fully realised and developed quite nicely, none of the events felt forced or coincidental and so the natural progression, particularly for Lady Bird and her mother, was presented efficiently. Ronan and Metcalf had a luminous chemistry together that felt both loving and prickly simultaneously. Hedges and Chalamet provided decent supporting roles also. I honestly don't have much else to say, if you've seen any coming-of-age film before then, really, you've seen this as well. Its formulaic approach is a small detriment to an incredibly acted, directed and written drama that will provide smiles all round.0 member like this review.
