Lady Bird

Lady Bird gives the feeling of meeting someone you connect with deeply, but never fully getting to know them. The film shows that love and like are not the same thing, especially within families. You can love someone and still struggle to like them at certain moments. This idea is clearly expressed in the line, “But do you like me?” Which explains much of the tension between Lady Bird and her mother. One of the strongest parts of the film is the difference in their love languages. Lady Bird’s love language is words of affirmation, while her mother’s is acts of service. Because of this, Lady Bird feels deeply hurt when her mother refuses to talk to her or does not say she looks beautiful in the dress. The moment Lady Bird jumps out of the car happens after her mother kept on nagging her, showing how overwhelmed Lady Bird feels. At the same time, her mother’s love is shown through actions, such as spending a long time fixing Lady Bird’s prom dress. The conflict between love and like explains why their relationship feels so tense. They love each other, but they do not always like each other’s behavior or the way they communicate. This movie helped me understand that my own relationship with my mother is not out of the ordinary. The fights in the film closely represent the bickering and harsh words that come up during our arguments. The scene where Lady Bird goes to college without her mother accompanying her to the gate feels especially real to me. It reflects what I imagine might happen when I leave for college in the near future, where love is present but not always expressed directly. Overall, Lady Bird is an raw representation of parent issues. I could talk about this movie for a long time, but I’ll stop here.