“I want you to be the very best version of yourself that you can be.”
“What if this is the best version?”
Release Date: December 1st, 2017
Genre: Comedy, Drama
MPAA: 14A
A third A24 review in less than a month, I’m not going to say I love this company but… you know, I love them.
I haven’t written a Inspirational Movie Monday style review since last year, I figured I would adapt this wonderful film into one. I missed Lady Bird in theatres, I really wanted to see it, but it wasn’t playing at any theatre except for the one downtown, and parking in that area is AWFUL. So I waited to see it, and it was well worth the wait.
Lady Bird is a comedy and drama film about an artistically inclined seventeen-year-old girl comes of age in Sacramento, California.
Lady Bird is written and directed by Greta Gerwig. This is the only film of hers that I have seen, and let me tell you, this was a special film. The amount of heart that was put in the script and the exceptional performances that Gerwig got out of her actors was fascinating to me. I felt like this was a real life story, this story was just so well rooted in real life, and real life situations. There was nothing that I felt was unnecessary in the script or anything that was too unrealistic. This was real and this was a really well-directed and well-written film. It was no surprise to me after watching it for the first time (and even after a couple days where I watched it again) that Greta Gerwig was nominated for the Best Directing and Best Original Screenplay oscar at the 2018 Academy Awards. There was an awful lot of heart in this movie.
Lady Bird stars Saoirse Ronan as Lady Bird, Laurie Metcalf as Marlon McPherson, and Lucas Hedges as Danny O’Neill.
Saoirse Ronan’s filmography consists of The Lovely Bones (2009), The Host (2013), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Brooklyn (2015), and Loving Vincent (2017). Saoirse Ronan is quickly becoming an actor to watch in my books. Everything she’s been in, has been excellent. Such a young talent too! I thought she was absolutely excellent in this movie, and this is my favourite movie that she’s been in so far. She encapsulated the character of Lady Bird perfectly, she was funny, she was charming and she was extremely loveable and relatable. Theres no surprise to me that she received a best female actor in a leading role nomination at the Oscars. I find some films are hit and miss, with the teenager theme, as I find some of them annoying (perhaps maybe because I was an annoying teenager a while ago), but Ronan took this role and made it her own.
Laurie Metcalf’s filmography consists of Toy Story (1995), Toy Story 2 (1999), Toy Story 3 (2010), and The Big Bang Theory {TV Series} (2007-2018). I didn’t realize until writing this review that Laurie Metcalf played Andy’s mom in the toy story movies, learn something new everyday. I’m not a huge Big Bang Theory fan at all, but I thought she is great as Sheldon’s mom in it. She plays a great mom character as it seems, and Lady Bird is no different. She played this role so well, that she felt like a relatable parent or guardian. She was naggy, but ultimately loving. She wanted to change her daughters life, and lead her down the right path, like a parent does. The chemistry she had with Ronan in this movie was genuine, I felt like I was watching a mother and daughter bicker in real life.
Lucas Hedges’s filmography consists of Moonrise Kingdom (2012), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Manchester By The Sea (2016), and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017). Lucas Hedge’s has had a big last couple of years, he’s just everywhere it seems. I thought he was great in Lady Bird, he was relatable and charming. He was impactful, despite not being in every scene in the movie. I thought he did great.
The soundtrack to this movie I thought was also excellent, there was a lot of great music from multiple different genres. Dave Matthew’s Band “Crash Into Me” is on display in a scene here and I thought it was just perfect. I thought the whole soundtrack was just perfect.
Coming of Age movies are very easy to relate to and be inspired by, perhaps its cheating to use them as an inspirational movie monday as I feel like that is what they are there for. But Lady Bird I feel speaks to any younger person and even any older person. Even though I am not a woman, I related a lot with Lady Bird as a character. There have been times in my life where I was trying to figure out where I fit, or what I was to do next (I’m still figuring out what to do next). There were times where I haven’t got along with my family, but that didn’t stop me from loving them. There were just times of struggling in my life, where I would turn to music, or I would turn to a friend and just talk about it. There were even times where I worked up the courage to talk to my family and get through it. This movie also does a nice job showing the viewer that we don’t appreciate what we have until its gone, and to appreciate what we have when we have it and to appreciate life. I just was left quite inspired by the message I received from this movie.
Lady Bird is lovely film, that I felt was well worth the wait to see. I watched it twice in one week, and I’m very glad that I own a copy now, as it will be a movie I will go back to time and time again.
Lady Bird gets a 5/5 from me.
Until next time, Stay Inspired!
-Andrew