Movie: Lady Bird
Director: Greta Gerwig
Rating: 4/5
In one phrase, Lady Bird feels like a mix of Call Me by Your Name, The Breakfast Club, and Moxie, and yet, somehow, none of these films can truly define it. Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird is an incredibly original coming-of-age story, and one that I can see myself remembering for years to come. For many, it might be the perfect young adult film: messy, emotional, funny, and painfully relatable.
Lady Bird follows Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson, a high school senior navigating friendships, relationships, family, identity, and her dreams for the future in Sacramento. She comes from one of the few financially struggling families in an otherwise affluent community, which becomes an important part of how she sees herself and the world around her. Throughout her final year of high school, Lady Bird desperately dreams of leaving Sacramento and building a life somewhere else. What makes this especially interesting, however, is her complicated relationship with the city itself. She claims to want nothing more than to escape, yet she is deeply attached to the place she calls home. This contradiction captures one of the film’s central themes: the strange feeling of simultaneously loving and resenting where you come from.
Saoirse Ronan’s performance as Lady Bird is one of the film’s biggest strengths. Drawing some parallels to her role in Little Women, Ronan perfectly captures the impulsiveness, confidence, insecurity, and rebelliousness of a teenage girl trying to figure herself out. Her chemistry with Laurie Metcalf, who plays her mother, feels especially authentic. Their relationship is full of arguments, misunderstandings, and hurtful comments, but beneath all of it is an unmistakable sense of love. Metcalf plays the frustrated and often overbearing mother brilliantly, making it clear that her harshness comes from a complicated mixture of concern, financial stress, and love for her daughter.
Beanie Feldstein, as Lady Bird’s best friend Julie, is another standout. Julie never feels like a simple supporting character. Her friendship with Lady Bird feels genuine precisely because it is imperfect; there is jealousy, distance, hurt, and eventually reconciliation. Their relationship is one of the film’s most emotionally effective portrayals of teenage friendship.
Visually, the film embraces many of the familiar elements of a coming-of-age movie, from high school hallways to suburban neighborhoods and school events. Yet Gerwig uses these familiar settings to create something that feels deeply personal and grounded. The one area where I felt the film had more potential was its soundtrack. While the songs fit the overall atmosphere, I think some choices could have been more intentional in reflecting Lady Bird’s emotional state or emphasizing particular moments in the story.
Overall, I really enjoyed Lady Bird. It is a film that captures the awkwardness, excitement, insecurity, and tenderness of growing up without trying to make adolescence look perfect. What makes it especially compelling is its portrayal of the messy relationship between mothers and daughters and of how love can coexist with resentment, frustration, and misunderstanding. Lady Bird is far from perfect, and that is exactly what makes her feel real.
I would especially recommend this film to teenage girls, or honestly, anyone who has ever felt desperate to leave home while simultaneously being afraid of what leaving it might mean. Lady Bird beautifully captures the imperfections of growing up and the complicated process of becoming your own person.
