"Lady Bird" Review
Just to let you know, coming-of-age stories are my shit.
"Lady Bird" is mumblecore superstar Greta Gerwig's first solo directorial effort and follows a year in the life of a young woman played by Saoirse Ronan. Plot wise, it's your standard coming-of-age structure which captures a very vulnerable time of a young person's life. Characters weave in and out and sometimes disappear from the movie with unresolved issues which really drives home the realism that Gerwig wants to portray. What unfolds in this movie at times feel hilarious, heartbreaking, or both at the same time where I didn't know how to react. The relationships between the main character, who calls herself "Lady Bird", are complicated and at times frustrating. She's not just a rebellious girl who has Bikini Kill and Sleater-Kinney posters on her wall, and her mom, played so empathetically by Laurie Metcalf, is not just the adult who makes all the right choices. These are all qualities I want to see every time I go out and watch a movie and this is done to perfection.
I'm not sure how much of the dialogue was improvised but there's a lot stuff like characters talking over each other, something that happens way too often in real life, and it's delivered extremely quickly. You might even say that it's too quick and the movie moves way too fast and doesn't allow for the tender moments to breathe. There were a lot of sudden scene transitions and it knows which moments to linger on. But following this movie can feel a bit exhausting but I'm personally fine with this.
This movie is amazing. Saoirse Ronan (who I can barely recognize in her role) and Laurie Metcalf are so damn endearing and Greta Gerwig's direction is so poignant and precise that it's impossible for me to turn away from a movie like this. Lady Bird is a movie that I will cherish and watch again and again for the rest of my life.