One of the more critically acclaimed movies of this year end rush of serious, awards-worthy movies is "Lady Bird", written and directed by actress Greta Gerwig. The movie can be described as a "coming-of-age" flick about a young teen-aged girl, Christine McPherson, who has for some unexplained reason rechristened herself as Lady Bird. She is a high school senior living on the "wrong side of the tracks" (her description) in Sacramento, CA. She longs to leave her dumpy Sacramento existence and go to college somewhere in the east, preferably New York City. Problem is, she is, at best, an underachieving student, and her family is facing some serious economic hardships.
The movie highlights the challenges and conflict arising between Lady Bird and her mother. It also shines the light on all of the normal angst that faces teenagers and teen-aged girls in particular. Never having had children of my own, much less a teen-aged girl, I may not be the best person to judge just how close this movie hits the mark, but it appears to be pretty much on target.
What makes this movie worth seeing, in my opinion, is the performance of Saoirse Ronan in the title role. Miss Ronan, 23, you may recall, is the young Irish actress who was wonderful in the terrific movie from 2015, "Brooklyn". That
girl, you may say, is now going to play an American teenager? Are you kidding me, you may say? Let me tell you, she is simply terrific in that role. You buy it completely that this really is a seventeen year old American high school girl, with everything that that entails, that you are seeing on the screen. "Astonishing" is not too strong a word to use to describe her in this one.
Another great performance comes from Laurie Metcalfe as Lady Bird's mother. There is strong buzz that she will soon be landing an Oscar nomination, at least, to go along with the Emmy and Tony Awards already on her mantelpiece at home.
Another element of this movie that I personally liked was the depiction of Lady Bird's high school, a Catholic all-girl's school, which exists hand-in-hand, almost, with a neighboring Catholic all-boys school. Its as an element to which I could pretty much relate, based upon my own high school years.
When you think of "teenage movies" the 1980's films of John Hughes - "Sixteen Candles", "Breakfast Club", and "Pretty in Pink" - come to mind, and "Lady Bird" may mine some of the same territory, but in a more dramatic and serious way. This one does have its comedic moments, though (wait until you see the priest who had been the jayvee football coach and now has to direct the school play). I liked the movie, didn't love it, although I suspect that I may like it more with repeated viewings.
I was initially going to give this one only Two and One-half stars, but upon reflection, I am bumping it to Three Stars based mainly on the terrific performance of Saoirse Ronan.
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