Lady Bird (Soirese Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Lucas Hedges) – Christine McPherson (Soirese Ronan) wants to be anything but who she is. Now 17 going on 18, she is desperate to get out of Sacramento, out of Catholic high school, out of her modest house, and away from her disapproving mother (Laurie Metcalf). She wants to go to New York for college and get away from everything she knows. She hangs with the nerds but wants to be popular no matter what it takes. Her first boyfriend (Lucas Hedges from Manchester By The Sea) turns out be gay. And she doesn’t even like her name, demanding that her family and friends call her Lady Bird.
Director/writer/actress Greta Gerwig seems determined to tell this coming-of-age film from a female perspective, which is both refreshing and enlightening. Diablo Cody wrote Juno, the movie this most resembles. But Gerwig’s script is less smart-ass and more reality based. And she waited to shoot it for almost a year until Soirese Ronan (her first name is pronounced SHEER sa) was available. Ronan, who blasted into stardom with phenomenal Oscar-nominated performances in Atonement (2008) and especially in Brooklyn (2016), is perfectly cast.
Born in New York but raised in Ireland by her Irish parents, the 23-year-old convincingly plays younger here in a multi-layered performance as memorable (and Oscar nominated) as Ellen Page in Juno and both Hilary Swank and Chloe Sevigny in Boys Don’t Cry.
This film has a 100% rating by critics on Rotten Tomatoes and 86% score by moviegoers. It doesn’t get much better than that. However, this is not fun and quirky like Juno, which I enjoyed more. It does provide serious insight into adolescence circa 2007-2008. Why it is set in that period is a mystery to me (perhaps that is when Gerwig began writing it or maybe the author believes that 10 years ago was a more innocent time).
But no matter. Lady Bird is a “small” independent film that should be prominent with Oscar buzz.