Lady Bird 2017

 “What the hell is in the duffel bag?”


“Don't worry about it. Geez”

“I'm so proud of you Lady Bird. You walked weird across the stage but you did it”

Hi Mom and Dad, it's me Christine. It's the name you gave me. It's a good one… I wanted to tell you… I love you, thank you.

The awkwardness of youth. Our inability to look beyond the young struggles of our life, to see those around us, holding us up and supporting us, hoping that we will become the best person we can be. It is hard to fully express the nuances of Lady Bird because the film so effectively captures the maelstrom of the teenage years. Years where we think we know everything. Yet, in reality we don't know that much. It is a time where we think our parents are out to get us. We believe that they don't know who we are, and they never will. Though in truth they do. They comprehend us with a depth, and love that is hard to put into words. Lady Bird captures these nuances of youth with seeming effortlessness.
This film is at once endearing and insightful One of the contributing factors to the film's effectiveness is its R rating. Lady Bird is one of a few films that uses its R rating as a tool rather than a license to overindulge. To be clear I do not mean that younger audiences should watch this film. Nor do I mean that you can't accomplish these same effects using a lower age rating. What I am trying to get out here is that Lady Bird respects itself. The film knows where it is thematically aiming and it hits that bull's-eye with real skill. To put it another way, Lady Bird is a meditation on our youth rather than a vehicle for it.
This film probably sounds very dour and serious to you right now. If it does I'm sorry. Lady Bird is not dour or draining in any way, though it is truthful. It is also a charming, funny, thoughtful and engaging coming-of-age story. One that subverts many expectations. Writer director Greta Gerwig and her team use these subversions to guide us back, to help us focus. Allowing us to realize that we are not alone. And that the love we have been seeking may have been there the whole time. We just needed to look beyond ourselves to see it.

Rated R for language, sexual content, brief graphic nudity (Male nudity in a pornographic magazine), and teen partying

I found Lady Bird to be delightfully awkward, insightful and meaningful. I hope in some way you do too.



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