Lady Bird (2017) Reviews

• A teen's life, in all its annoying realism

  Semisonic2018-03-05

  Fighting with your parents over your freedom to decide for yourself, struggling with financial difficulties, trying so hard to impress others to actually feel like people care about you and pay attention, doing the stupidest things out of fear of being rejected otherwise. These things, and a million of other ones, are what an almost grown up human being's life is about. Well, maybe not everywhere and not for everyone, but most of us could surely relate to what Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson goes through. What Saoirse Ronan did to her character is no small feat. With her porcelain doll beauty and those pale blue eyes, she goes out of her typical closed and emotionally restrained character and becomes someone who yells and screams and laughs and cries and breaks things on screen, making Lady Bird so intense that it's unbearable at some points. Making the character of Lady Bird so intense and hard to handle is probably both the film's best feature and its most serious flaw. In all the multitude of coming-of-age movies, the kid characters are mostly childish and they do dumb things often - but then some uncanny wisdom comes upon them and they grow up in our eyes and suddenly become reasonable and - let's be honest about this - tolerable at last. Lady Bird takes a slightly different road of dropping that sugarcoating and leaving Christine what she is - conflicted, hysterical, inconsistent and, damn, annoying! Just like the character of Christine's mother struggles to write her a letter and to choose words that would both be kind and ring true, so does the audience have a hard time accepting Lady Bird's edgy self. I certainly found it hard to do. It's curious why we people love the coming-of-age stories. The kids watch them to see that someone does understand and does care about who they are, to see someone else who'd tell them that they are not alone. And we adults watch them to seek hope that those chaotic and erratic creatures we once gave birth to are indeed our kin and that sometime soon you'd get on the same page and would be able to actually talk to each other like responsible people. In terms of promising the older generations a magical realm in which their progeny will be delivered to their hands all mature and stuff, Lady Bird isn't too reassuring. Nor does it promise us that kids secretly understand everything and it's just a lack of communication - because it's just not true. But there's one thing about this story that redeems all the facepalm moments you experience watching those kids do their kid stuff. That, just like the kids are not alone in their struggle, so aren't their parents. So there's no reason to blame the world on yourself and drown yourself in guilt and anger begotten by it - 'cause you're no more guilty than the other guy. So, if you have a bird you love - just set it free, and if it loves you back, it will return some day and somehow.

• A truly remarkable coming-of-age comedy

  tmpsvita2018-02-19

  A truly remarkable coming-of-age comedy, above all for its sincere, credible nature and it is not at all easy to be honest and sincere with a film of this kind, for the simple reason that in most cases these "coming- of-age "are often filled with clichés, stereotypes and commonplace, and more often than not they base their foundations precisely on these things. In doing so they are not credible and absolutely forgettable. Well this is not the case. The merit of an extraordinary script that is impeccably written, it is a mature, intelligent, often ironic, sweet, credible, intense and also very emotional script. Greta Gerwig manages this script in a superb way, despite her little experience (this is her second film as a director but first soloist) is extremely aware of the intensity of her film. The interpretations are also particularly notable and not only that of the protagonist, played by the talented Saoirse Ronan that with this role, in which she identifies perfectly, reaches its 3 nominations at the Oscars at only 23 years, it could be called a new Meryl Streep; but also the interpretations of the rest of the cast: from the young and promising Beanie Feldstein, to the most mature, and in this movie is also very good (so much to receive a nomination, the first in her career), Laurie Metcalf, up to two young masculine promises Lucas Hedges and Timothée Chalamet, both discovered only in these two years (the first in 2016 with his performance in "Manchester by the Sea" is the second this year with "Call me by your Name". Unfortunately, however, from an extraordinary beginning, extremely ironic, fun, fresh, the film lost itself a little towards the middle, which is a little heavy, and then it recover itself in the final. Watching it, it came back to me, given their similarity in terms of the theme and the rhythm, another coming-of-age of 2016, "The Edge of Seventeen", also an excellent film that unfortunately was relatively forgotten and ignored.

• a touching throwback to the adolescent years

  Special-K882018-03-11

  In the year 2002, Catholic high school senior Christine McPherson, self-named 'Lady Bird,' is an impetuous girl literally from the wrong side of the tracks who is at a critical stage in her life: she's continually at odds with her mother, she despises her mundane life in Sacramento, and she wants to go to college on the east coast in a city with culture. Her ordinary life suddenly takes a turn when she has to deal with popularity, discovering boys and romance, and coping with the problems of people other than her own. Cute, quirky, and thoughtful coming-of-age story is one everyone can relate to, with the all-important themes of teen angst, adolescence, and ambition; colorful dialogue, well-drawn characters, and believable situations are only elevated by a talented cast of actors. Twenty-three-year-old Ronan perfectly embodies the spirit of a self-absorbed teenager in all her complexities, making it easy for viewers to recall a similar time period in their lives. ***

• "Charming" - if you pay the right kind of attention to it.

  asifahsankhan2018-03-05

  "Lady Bird" is Greta Gerwig's beautiful and insightful film, the first for which she is solely credited as writer and director. Gerwig, a Sacramento native herself and member of her heroine's generation - the movie takes place mostly during the 2002-3 academic year - knows her characters and their world very well. Her affection envelops them like a secular form of grace: not uncritically, but unconditionally. And if you pay the right kind of attention to "Lady Bird" - played by the lovely Saoirse Ronan (already, at 23, one of the most formidable actors in movies today) - absorbing its riffs and digressions as well as its melodies, it's choral passages along with its solos and duets - It's a worth- watch for the the constant stream of early 2000s nostalgia that runs through the entire movie and a few powerful moments: the hug between Lady Bird and Danny O'Neill (you'll know it when you see it) and the mother's drive through. Yes, Lady Bird has its moments. You will almost certainly love it. It's hard not to.

• Character Is The Thing

  damian-fuller2017-12-18

  How refreshing and invigorating to meet new people. Familiar and new all at the same time. Familiar because the extraordinary Saorise Ronan connected me to her soul, as soon as she appeared on the screen. Remarkable. She is, without question, one of the best actresses of her generation. She has exceptional support here, Laurie Metcalf as the mother determined to keep her feelings at bay, Lucas Hedges, providing one of the most moving, truthful moments in the film and allowing Saorise Ronan to give us a masterful class in empathy. Timothee Chalamet proves in a very short space of time that he is here to stay. His Elio in Call Me By your Name will be considered one of the great breakthrough performances in film history. Tracy Letts plays the father with irresistible humanity and then, of course, a heartfelt congratulations to the writer, director Greta Gerwing -