Review of Lady Bird (2017) by Guillermo G — 04 Mar 2018

Napoleon said he didn't want brilliant generals, he wanted lucky ones, and Greta Gerwig is a lucky film director. She is good, as a writer and director, but her film caught the at long last tsunami of assertion of women's rights and women's issues, giving it a relevance it does not have. It is a well-meaning, well-observed small movie about coming of age, not an exceptional work.

It is interesting to see the quasi-hysterical overpraise of Lady Bird in relation to the quasi-hysterical denigration of Call Me By Your Name on the alleged grounds of statutory rape (because in America, where the film does not take place) the age of consent is higher than in Italy, where it does, and that Arnold Hammer is too old for the part (his character's age is never mentioned, he could be in his late twenties, Hammer was 30 when he played the role) but Saoirse Ronan, who is 23 playing a 17 (and it shows) has received nothing but praise. I don't mind the actors' ages in either case, but it says something about people's perceptions and prejudices.

It's a film worth seeing if you can, but you haven't missed anything memorable if you don't. The kind of film that doesn't lose much if seen on TV or on a plane.