Lady Bird

The first time I saw Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, I was a sophomore in high school, a couple months before the country went on lockdown. On first viewing, I was very affected by the film because it reminded me of my own sometimes-strained relationship with my mother, and the college application process ahead of me. Even though I didn’t go to a pious Catholic school just based off of parental fear-mongering, or grow up immediately after 9/11, and am not a girl, I was still able to relate to it. I was just starting to watch more films I hadn’t yet, so I wasn’t quite as analytical about the art of cinema yet. I knew it was a 10/10, rock-solid all-time favorite film as soon as I first saw it. I was in awe that Greta Gerwig was able to make such a refreshing, authentic coming-of-age story that didn’t feel fake. Every moment of Lady Bird hit me in a different way. It was just a great film that stuck with me several years later. I had not seen it since then, even though it was always on my mind. When I directed my short film *In Person, the wistful-yet-melancholic tone of this and Eighth Grade* were my main influences, the pinnacle of A24 coming-of-age stories. But then I revisited it tonight for my Critical Approach to the Cinema class. Like most people in my class, I had seen it before; yet it hit even harder for me on rewatch. Sacramento was even more so “the Midwest of California”, her mother was even more irritating, and the film had my heart even more this time around. I’m pretty sure that Lady Bird herself, Christine MacPherson, is set to become one of the most iconic movie characters of the 21st century. She is one of the most layered, distinct protagonists in a coming-of-age story. Lady Bird is not perfect, often accused by critics of being “unlikable”, but that is what makes her human. Rather than a caricature of an Irish Catholic high school senior, she’s a real, living breathing person that exists. Few know about who she is on the inside except for us the audience, and she’s often ostracized by her more privileged peers for her religious upbringing and seemingly bland existence. She can be entitled at times, not always 100% sympathetic, but is not the stereotypical, bitchy teenage girl we’re used to seeing in the media. If anything, that’s what makes her human, so I don’t really get why (besides internalized sexism) that she’s often referred to as “unlikable”. Saoirse Ronan is brilliant and naturalistic, a perfect casting choice that makes Lady Bird all the more believable. She should have won the Best Actress Oscar for 2017 for the part and I stand by that. We believe her as a relative outcast in her community, someone insecure about their home life and beauty standards, not a traditional Hollywood movie teenager, but a real-life, authentic character. It would be difficult if not impossible for a male writer to make this character so well-rounded and layered. If she was a perfect person, Christine would not be so fascinating. I connected just as much with Lady Bird’s relationship with her parents as I did on first viewing. The excellent Laurie Metcalf as her controlling, overly critical mother, and Tracy Letts as her clinically depressed, more empathetic father, are also so believable. They have that clash of personalities between parents, the mother having a clash of personalities with the child, that many dysfunctional families have; and it’s as stressful to watch as it is universal. The mother is rarely portrayed in a flattering manner; she uses her own troubled upbringing as an excuse to belittle and even emotionally abuse Christine. Yet Gerwig is smart enough not to go full Mommie Dearest and make her into the mother from hell, she’s still human, and to quote the father, she and Christine have “such strong personalities”. And Metcalf and Letts are both brilliant, Metcalf definitely should have won Supporting Actress that year. The father tends to be more affectionate towards Christine, embracing her each time; by contrast, the iconic opening shot between Christine and her mother in bed is the closest she ever gets with her mother. Her mother is so infuriating at times but some of the best scenes in the film are the ones between her and Christine. One of my favorite moments in the film is when Christine asks her mother “I know you love me, but do you like me?” It questions the notion of unconditional parental love, and whether the parent means it if they are at their child’s throat half the time. And during the finale, her mother only misses her when she has gone away to college. It’s not a satisfying Hollywood finale where Christine embraces her parents on the way to the airport. Speaking of which, what makes Lady Bird so brilliant is how confidently it defies Hollywood conventions. Gerwig doesn’t focus on the stereotypical cliques, she just hones in on the layered characters she has created. The dialogue she writes may be basic conversation, but it’s natural conversation, not Hollywood youth-pandering. None of it is cheesy or over-sentimental or student film-like. The film does not romanticize the high school experience like most teen media, but doesn’t become pretentious misery, and try to show how horrible things are. And instead of not getting over a lost love, Christine moves onto someone else knowing that moving on is normal, even if it turns out to be a debaucherous jerk played by a still great Timothee Chalamet. Sex is portrayed as awkward and not always particularly sexy. Gerwig manages to subvert tired and problematic clichés of movie relationships, as evidenced in one of the best scenes of the film: when Christine finds Danny (Lucas Hedges) and discusses his status as an outed gay man. Rather than break down over it, Christine embraces him as Jon Brion’s score swells. She knows that Danny had tried too hard to conform to a socially accepted heterosexual relationship, and empathizes with him. Any other story would be about how heartbroken the female is that her boyfriend is gay, but she is accepting of him, in one of the most touching moments of the film. If a typical Hollywood film took place in the early 2000s, it would completely play up the post-9/11 fear-mongering and loads of early 2000s music and fashion. Gerwig knows that the audience is smarter than this, keeping the setting in the background and not letting the “period” atmosphere overshadow the story; something a lot of period films today struggle with.(cough… the Fear Street Trilogy). There are cell phones (or as Timothee Chalamet’s Kyle calls them, “tracking devices”), post-9/11 paranoia and Dave Matthews, but Gerwig isn’t shouting “it’s the early 2000s” in the audience’s ears. In fact, the post-9/11 paranoia motivates the mother’s concern over Christine wanting to go to New York for college, and the song “Crash Into Me” by the Dave Matthews Band becomes a signifier for Christine’s friend Julie (Beanie Feldstein). On that topic, another fantastic scene occurs as “Crash Into Me” turns from a diegetic needle drop as Christine and Kyle disagree on the song to a non-diegetic needle drop as she goes to prom with Julie. On this rewatch, I noticed that this was a variation on the “we gotta get out of this place” coming-of-age story; this time Christine isn’t longing to escape from a dangerous hometown as much as a soul-crushingly mediocre hometown, and a conservative religious upbringing. She was sheltered as a youth by a controlling mother, and has not had a solid romantic relationship with a man through the story; the one bit of emotional support she has is Julie.(possible gay subtext?). In going to college in the city, she wants to be liberated as she enters adulthood, psychologically and even sexually.(hence the Playgirl magazines she purchases on her 18th birthday). Gerwig’s direction, the cinematography, editing, and Jon Brion’s score add so much to the realistic yet playful tone. There’s an emphasis on wides and mediums, with some beautiful repeating master shots of Christine walking down the streets to her neighborhood. I even noticed moments of symmetry, such as when Christine is in the supermarket aisles, reminiscent of Wes Anderson. It relies on available light for each moment for the naturalistic, almost cinema-verite feel of the film. A contrast is created with the lighting as well: more awkward scenes during the day, and more uplifting moments at night. Several montages are utilized, some for an upbeat moment (like the school play scenes; which like in Baumbach’s Marriage Story, have lots of Sondheim, not that I’m complaining) and for a moment of ethereal reflection.(a lovely montage of Sacramento bookends the film). The film is fast-paced, but not to the point where it feels like material was cut; this is meant to capture how overwhelming the college application process is. Same goes for the editing, which isn’t too showy but not exactly minimalist. Jon Brion’s wistful, folky score fits the tone of the film perfectly, an underappreciated aspect of the film. I even used some of the score for some scenes in my short film *In Person*, in an almost identical scene to the one of Christine and Julie walking through Sacramento. I’m still not sure how this is a debut feature, considering what a confident filmmaker Gerwig is; this is the work of someone who has to have made films for many years. Part of the reason why this hit me harder this time was because I am a college student right now, studying film in a city away from home. The first couple weeks of college were rough for me: I had trouble making friends, had too much downtime for my own good, and for as much as they have let me down sometimes, I missed my parents. Going to college seemed like it would be a liberating experience from an often-boring home life, like it does for Lady Bird; she even abandons her nickname and denies her Sacramento hometown when she gets to college. But then I became her at the end of the film, calling my parents outside with a depressed tone of voice. Even then, there was still hope for me, and the picture cuts to black on this sad yet hopeful note. Sure, I haven’t lied about my hometown or fallen down drunk at a party only to end up in the ER, yet I identified with her regardless. I don’t hate my hometown like she does, but I get homesick too. Like her, I am a sometimes-depressed college student who has not always gotten along with adults in my life, and had trouble fitting in with the crowd, but with some close friends that have always stuck with me. I am so grateful that a perfect, truly relatable coming-of-age story like this exists. Eighth Grade, Juno, Freaks and Geeks, Skam, Moonlight, and Lady Bird, are the perfect 21st century American pieces of motion picture media about growing up. Lady Bird is a fantastic, charming, tragic and comic, perfect film that easily transcends the “teen movie” label. I am so glad that a studio like A24 is able to trust such revolutionary filmmakers like Gerwig, let them take pride in transcending genre and make great pieces of work. The fact that this film is from 2017 (a great year for cinema; the year of Get Out, The Florida Project, Dunkirk, Blade Runner 2049, Baby Driver, among countless others) and already being studied in a college film studies course is proof that it has already stood the test of time and become an all-time cinema classic. I think Lady Bird will stay in my heart for the rest of my life, continue to be an influence on my love of the movies, and not be forgotten; and be my favorite film of 2017, and be one of my favorites of all time.