QR Film Review: Lady Bird
Lady Bird, writer-director Greta Gerwig’s (Frances Ha, Mistress America) directorial debut, opens with Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) and her mother Marion (Laurie Metcalf) driving home from a college visit, listening to the end of Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. There are tears; then, there’s an argument—Lady Bird wants to move to the East Coast for college, but her mother wants her to stay in California, close to home. Then, Lady Bird throws herself out of the moving car.
It’s the first shockingly funny moment of a film packed with them, and sets up the rest of the film beautifully. Gerwig’s rapid-fire narrative (the film, though it feels the opposite of rushed, only lasts 93 minutes) doesn’t waste a second in establishing many of its touching, all-too-relatable themes: the often-tense bond between a mother and daughter, both headstrong and passionate, and a young woman’s bildungsroman quest to work out exactly who she is. At the film’s heart, too, is the confusing, exciting, slightly terrifying experience of being a 17-year-old girl in a confusing, exciting, slightly terrifying world.
From the off, Ronan is an absolute dream to watch as she navigates Lady Bird through these conflicts, adding wit, charm, flaws and hilarity to a character that could’ve collapsed into the stereotypical ‘rebellious teen’ trope. Bouncing off the rest of the cast, especially Metcalf’s brilliant performance as her mother, Ronan captures the hyperactive emotions of a teen trying to weave her way through a Catholic school populated by strangely funny nuns, whilst dreaming of the opposite sex and of a possible future far from Sacramento, her family, and her teenage life. The entire ensemble’s performances are electric, too. Lucas Hedges is masterful in his portrayal of Lady Bird’s first love Danny, a young man struggling with his identity; Beanie Feldstein shines as Lady Bird’s best friend and partner-in-crime Julie, and holds her own against Ronan’s brilliant acting.
But it’s Timothée Chalamet who steals the spotlight in the film’s second act with his bass-playing hipster-wannabe Kyle Scheible, the rich boy who steals Lady Bird’s heart. Every one of his lines is laced with knowing, acerbic satire: Chalamet’s deadpan, often hilarious delivery is spot-on. It’s one of the film’s most true-to-life performances—he fully embodies that posh guy from sixth form who thought chain-smoking rollups and being an awful person was cool. Upsettingly, my seventeen-year-old self would probably have been just as into him as Lady Bird is.
Aside from the fantastic performances, too, the film simply looks and sounds great. Cinematographer Sam Levy’s capturing of light and colour is beautiful: the film is vibrant and sun-drenched, and each scene is framed and paced beautifully, with the camera’s eye being allowed to linger on important interactions, images and moments. Gerwig’s soundtracking is nostalgic without falling into trite cliché, too—artists varying from Alannis Morissette to Justin Timberlake, Indigo Girls and many more remain true to Lady Bird’s early noughties setting. Whilst the soundtrack could potentially date the film in years to come, for Generation Y viewers, this won’t be an issue; rather, it’ll immediately transport them back to their early millennium youth, only adding to the sentimental, sweet relatability already conjured up by the cast’s well-observed performances.
A genuine, heart-warming film that delicately embodies the struggles and triumphs of being a young American , Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut hits all the right notes in its exploration of a teenage girl’s bittersweet coming-of-age. Saoirse Ronan is, as most critics agree, wonderful, and the entire ensemble are fantastic – a highly engaging must-see.
5/5
By Eilis Lee