My Thoughts on Lady Bird 

Lady Bird is a movie written and directed by Greta Gerwig that is about an 18 year old girl named Christine but prefers to be addressed as “Lady Bird” who lives in Sacramento, California and attends a Catholic High School full of rich kids, which she is not as she is on a scholarship. Lady Bird lives with her family that consists of her tightly wound mother who she has a terse relationship with, her depressed father who she has a good relationship with and her adopted brother and his wife.

Lady Bird is at that point in her life where she thinks she is ready to be an adult. She is dissatisfied with her life and wants nothing more than to have experiences she can go through. She talks down on Sacramento and wants to move to the East Coast for college. Lady Bird does get to have these experiences through her mom, her dad, boys, and her best friend.

Saoirse Ronan who plays Lady Bird seems poised to win the Best Actress trophy. While Laurie Metcalfe is also poised to win one either for this or for Three Billboards. I am not one to be left out for award fodder so I had to see it inspite of my meh-ness about Greta Gerwig (I just thought at some point, she was overhyped and it annoyed me). I quite enjoyed this movie because I found it multi-faceted and with something for everyone.

The movie is sold as a coming of age story but it could be sold as many things. The complicated relationships between mothers and daughters, growing up without money, fitting in in high school, not being able to be yourself etc etc. Of all the different scenarios mentioned, I think my favorite was the complicated relationship between Lady Bird and her mom. The overbearing, biting mom who only came from a place of love and her daughter who knows her moms loves her but can’t understand why she doesn’t seem to like her was so well expressed and I feel a lot of people with immigrant moms would relate to the tough kind of love that comes with plenty criticism.

The movie set in 2002 came with musical gems like “Cry me a river” and “Crash”. I was the only young person in the theater so I don’t think the older people appreciated that aspect. You know when a cup of coffee is just right. With the right amount of coffee, cream and sugar? That’s how I would describe this movie. It could have easily veered on corny or pandering but it didn’t, it was just right. The end was a bit emotional and the women in the theater were sniffing – understandably so ( I didn’t but I also haven’t sent a kid to college)

I’d recommend seeing this movie.