Lady Bird: Introduction

Lady Bird starring Saroise Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Beanie Feldstein, Timothee Chalamet, and Lucas Hedges premiered in 2017. It is directed, conceived, and written by, at the time, 34-year-old Greta Gerwig, making her directorial debut. Gerwig is an actress mainly known for starring in the indie movie Frances Ha. Lady Bird won the Golden Globe for best movie, it has a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes, and I personally believe it to be the perfect film. Lady Bird follows a girl of the same name, which she proclaims is her given name “given to me by me”, who is a senior in a Catholic high school in Sacramento, California in the year 2003. It has all the potential to be another quirky manic pixie dream teen girl coming of age story, something liken to Molly Ringwald in every John Hughes movie ever or something more modern like Natalie Portman in Garden State. However, Lady Bird is much more nuanced than that. Lady Bird is not particularly smart, she is barely passing her classes, she is not particularly cultured, especially in contrast with Timothee Chalamet’s beautiful portrayal of Kyle, her asshole “I try and stay out the economy and I roll my own cigarettes” boyfriend, and she is not particularly beautiful, the actress Saoirse was breaking out during the movie due to the heavy makeup from a play she had just finished. What Lady Bird does have is heart, hope, and a wicked sense of humor. She is remarkably flawed and makes so many mistakes throughout the film. I implore you to pay special attention to the supporting cast and background characters during the movie. Lady Bird is an incredibly selfish character and it is easy to focus in on just her, but Beanie Feldstein gives an incredible performance as her best friend Julie, and gives what I think to be the best line reading in cinematic history (look out for when she says “it is the titular role”) and Lucas Hedges is heartbreaking as the sweet sweet soft boy Danny. I also ask you to pay attention to the setting, especially the characters relationships to it.

The most important relationship in this movie is not between Lady Bird and the boys she dates, but rather between herself and her mother. The two obviously love each other, but clash constantly due to their similarities. Laurie Metcalf delivers brilliant microaggressions that I’m sure we’ve all heard our own mother say but are never tired out phrases. Several times Lady Bird defends her mother saying “she just has a big heart”. The last 15 minutes of the film focus almost exclusively on their relationship. My mother and I saw this movie in the theater together and we were sobbing by the end, even though our relationship is much better than Lady Bird and Marion’s. It is definitely one of the best and most realistic depictions of a mother-daughter relationship I have ever seen, many times we love our mothers but we can’t stand them.

So, Professor Dyson originally asked me why I thought Lady Bird was important. For me, I think it’s because a movie that truly and honestly depicts the horrifying reality of being a teenage girl. Many times in respectable cinema we are completely looked over because we are not “serious” or “interesting” enough. We are mainly seen only in movies that are targeted at us, or we serve as someone’s daughter in a more refined movie. Gerwig completely abandons this idea and Lady Bird is a distinctively adult drama that focuses on a 18-year-old girl. The teen girl characters in the movie swear, they talk about sex and masturbation, they have dreams that they know are unrealistic, they question religion, they cry about boys, they listen to bad music, and they have complicated relationships with their families and their way of life. The way Gerwig has written these characters makes you want to throw yourself into the movie and become a character yourself, and not because it is a fantastical utopia, but because you want to go and support the characters and be their friend. One important distinction to make is the fact that there are no stock characters in this movie, it is true that some of the characters feel familiar such as the nagging mother, goth brother, or fat best friend, but you have never seen them in this developed and dynamic way. They are all people in Lady Bird, with flaws and redeeming characteristics, they are never caricatures.

Finally, one thing I would like you to keep in mind during the movie is this interaction we will see Lady Bird have with a nun serving as a counselor. The question asked is, are love and paying attention the same thing? Let me know what you think.