Review of Lady Bird (2017) by Felix M — 19 Dec 2017

**Slight disclaimer: My "reviews," are really just gut reactions that I can remember and jot down. Forgive the sloppy styling, grammatical errors and general upheaval of my writing. While I do try and write something cohesive and obeying film review etiquette, mostly, I say fuck that. What I love about theater going, is the surge of emotions I experience, especially during a particularly bad or a truly great film. I try (and likely fail) to translate that feeling into my writing but hey, I warned you. You can stop now and I'll never know.

Lady Bird.

Watched 12/17/2017.

As time changes, one genre that will never cease to be interesting, is the coming of age tale. Even if one has already come of age, there is still much to be learned by youth and the start of the journey to finding ones place in life. Lady Bird, delivers in spades.

The rosetta stone to any coming of age story is a strong main, Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson, played by Saoirse Ronan, is one of my favorite characters I've seen in a long time. Her resistance to authority isn't tired and repetitive, it's a humorous blend of doing just enough to get by while holding up two middle fingers.

Many of the themes of this film really hit home with me, Lady Bird, hates her hometown and cannot wait to escape to the magical land that is New York City, but she'll even settle for Connecticut.

The film is bright and energetic and at 94 minutes it's paced very well. Before I knew it the movie was over, and I wanted more. That's the sign of a good, well made, precisely tuned movie.

One thing I didn't expect was just how funny this film would be, the writing is quick and witty. There is a bad habit going around that comedies have to use this stale "awkward humor," rather than actually come up with funny scenarios and jokes, they just push the boundaries of comfort in relatively mundane situations. Lady Bird is refreshing in the sense that there are a myriad of funny, uncomfortable scenarios and none of them play out like I thought they would. It's sharp, it's vulgar, and it's hilarious. I'll need to see it again for many reasons but mainly to hear the lines of dialogue I missed from laughing so hard.

It's the funny mixed with the heart that makes this movie work so well, and believe me there is a lot of heart. The complexities of discovering sexuality and what that means, the sensation of abandoning the familiar, playing the game even with the deck stacked against you. These themes are timeless so don't let your age or any other excuse keep you from seeing this one.

With a dozen of A+ movies out right now, Lady Bird doesn't have Jedi's or monsters or cute animated animals, and it doesn't need them. Director and writer Greta Gerwig delivers one of the year's best. This is a human, emotional, hilarious film and against these industry giants it towers.