A Reel Review: LADY BIRD

One of the best types of tales to be told is the coming-of-age story; a tale which takes us along the journey of a young person as they go through an ordeal, which on the other side leads them to adulthood. Books, poems, plays, and cinema have been using that narrative for hundreds of years with great success, mostly because such a story is one that we can all relate to; it’s a very human and natural ordeal…and this is the root of Greta Gerwig’s LADY BIRD.

Christine (Saoirse Ronan), who re-names herself Lady Bird, is a senior at a Catholic High School in California who wants to go to the east coast for college, despite the wishes of her overbearing mother (Laurie Metcalf). Lady Bird goes behind her mom’s back to apply to east coast schools, while trying to catch a boyfriend (Lucas Hedges), and jockeying for popularity with her classmates.

LADY BIRD is a film which doesn’t try to break new ground or re-write the manual on how to turn a girl into a woman. It’s basic storytelling which doesn’t have much of plot, and instead focuses on the events in Lady Bird’s life over a year’s time (or so), as she applies to schools, tries to get a prom date, breaks up with boys, fights with her mom and brother, and befriends popular girls in place of her tried-and-true best friend.

Teen angst is at front-and-center of this tale, as Lady Bird is shown as a young girl who seems to dislike everything. That’s an approach that could go horribly wrong, as no one wants to spend an entire movie with an unlikeable character, but Gerwig has a strong handle on things. Lady Bird isn’t unlikeable at all, and is more of a misunderstood character than just misbehaving. There is warmth and outright sincerity to it all, and there are very few moments that Lady Bird is going through that we haven’t felt towards the final months of our high school years.

Gerwig films a very plain looking movie, and it often feels documentary-like. Pacing is brisk, and even the quieter moments tend to move. Gerwig also directs some very well emotionally-charged scenes between Lady Bird and her parents, which is (again), familiar territory and hard to watch. The film is also brilliantly set in 2002, which is a ways from the social media age and allows the teen characters to be teens, and also has the lingering fear of 9/11 hanging over the characters. Pop music from the time is used in all the right places.

Saoirse Ronan is magnificent as Lady Bird. Her Irish accent vanishes, and an outsider would never guess that she isn’t really a California girl. Ronan goes through all sorts of emotions and sells them; when she’s happy, elated, sad, or downright furious…it always works. Lucas Hedges is great as always, and Laurie Metcalf has a lot of hefty lifting to do as Lady Bird’s always-annoyed mom.

LADY BIRD deals mostly with the main character’s want to escape and start her life, and by the time she gets there, we don’t quite feel that her journey is over, but that she now has the tools with her to move forward. Gerwig has written and directed a clever, simple, and effective coming-of-age story here, one that can generate plenty of laughs and tears…and find something for us all to remember.

BOTTOM LINE: See it