Review: Lady Bird

Greta Gerwig has been working towards Lady Bird for a while now. In her collaborations with Noah Baumbach, the great Frances Ha and the solid Mistress America, she has worked on a voice that could be described as poetic and sincere as Cameron Crowe at his best. With her first directorial effort, Lady Bird, she has honed that voice and distilled it into one of the best films about growing up ever.

Lady Bird is largely autobiographical. Gerwig grew up in Sacramento and so does "Lady Bird", played wonderfully by Saoirse Ronan. Ronan feels like the perfect substitute for Gerwig, capturing her warm sense of humor and ability to observe how we relate to others. The film follows Christine McPhereson, aka "Lady Bird", as she tried desperately to escape Sacramento on the eve of high school graduation. At the core of the film is her complicated relationship with her mother, played by Laurie Metcalf in an Oscar worthy performance. 

That relationship and how it is explored is a big part of what makes Lady Bird so special. The film wisely avoids making it the central focus all the time and instead weaves in their contentious relationship into the film naturally. This allows for minor exchanges to be loaded with all the emotional weight that a big climactic moment in a lesser film would be striving for. So often, Lady Bird contains lines of dialogue that combine wisdom, humor and honest insight into distilled exchanges.

Aside from the great performances by Metcalf and Ronan, special attention should be paid to Beanie Feldstein as Christine's best friend Julie. This could easily have been a character created just to serve the plot or comic relief but in Gerwig's hands, a whole movie could have been devoted to Julie. The same could be said for Lucas Hedges' Danny, a boy who has a lot to figure out. Gerwig writes such rich characters here that even minor ones remain memorable. Combine that with some of the most perfect casting of the year and you get a truly remarkable film. 

Lady Bird works in every frame thanks to the witty and candid writing, the stellar cast and Gerwig's strong voice that emanates in every aspect. The film captures the move from high school perfectly and maintains a refreshing female perspective. In that way, comparisons to Crow's Say Anything feel apt. This is the rare film that contains quotable lines that make your heart swell and break in the same moment.

4.5/5

- On a side note, the film features the most hilarious use of a Dave Matthews Band song ever.