Miles of Movies

                                                                                                         Lady Bird is about Christine “Lady Bird”                                                                                                            McPherson (Saoirse Ronan), a high school senior                                                                                                      getting ready for college and just trying to get                                                                                                            through her last year. She’s struggling with not quite                                                                                                knowing who she is or what she wants to do. Her                                                                                                    family is struggling with financial troubles and she                                                                                                    isn’t exactly making things easy for them. The story                                                                                                  is told from her perspective but gives quite a lot of                                                                                                  weight to her mother’s point of view. The result is a                                                                                                  really heartfelt, slice-of-life kind of movie that isn’t                                                                                                    afraid to leave in the awkward realities of life.

         Lady Bird features quite a few strong performances. Saoirse Ronan does such a good job as the titular character, giving her some real emotional resonance and making you feel her frustrations, even if they are often juvenile. Tracy Letts, as her father, gives a great, understated performance that is met at the opposite end of the table by the whirlwind that is Laurie Metcalf as Lady Bird’s mother. She gives one of the best performances of the year and makes so much out of her character, with real strength through her vulnerability. Unfortunately, some of the supporting cast, Lucas Hedges in particular, are a little lacking. Lucas Hedges plays Danny, a boy who develops a relationship with Lady Bird. He always seems like he’s trying a little too hard and couldn’t make his character feel as natural as the rest of the film.

         The movie also explores a lot more than just Lady Bird’s high school time. It gets into the class issues apparent in her hometown of Sacramento and how that affects her parents and Lady Bird’s relationships, choice of friends, and where she wants to go to college. It also shows how some jobs are disappearing and how difficult it is to be in a shrinking field where everyone seems to be getting younger. There is a really great scene in this film at a job interview that was fairly heartbreaking for a particular character. The little things this movie is able to do with its subplots is what makes it special.

          But it’s also what makes it a little slower in parts. This film takes a while to get going and some of the subplots are either cliched or just don’t seem to have a purpose in the greater story. Life can be like that, sure, but when making a movie you have an editor and a narrative to write out of it all. I just think a couple of the scenes could have been streamlined a little.

          Overall, Lady Bird was a really heartfelt movie about vulnerability and the uncertainty of the future and what one family in Sacramento is doing about it. It touches on quite a few subjects and delivers a mostly well-acted film that has one great ending.