Review of Lady Bird (2017) by Brandon M — 01 Dec 2017

Greta Gerwig's directional debut is strikingly honest, smartly written, and well-acted, although I wouldn't want to go too far by praising this film as much as everybody did.

In "Lady Bird," Saoirse Ronan plays Christine McPherson, who likes to go by the name "Lady Bird." Throughout the film, we see Christine living in Sacramento, California, and she's now spending her senior year in a private catholic high school.

Even though "Lady Bird" looks and feels like a semi-autobiography film, there's nothing particularly new about this film. As I mentioned before, it's strikingly honest, and the film does a nice job by offering insights of Christine's dilemma and her family, but some of the things in the film, such as her losing her best friend, Julie (Beanie Feldstein), when she's hanging out with this one girl, Jenna (Odeya Rush), does feel familiar. What's also troubling me is that I find its climax to be a little ongoing. However, I do like Greta Gerwig's screenplay. I think most of her dialogue works really well, and the humor she has created turns out to be pretty funny.

I don't find Saoirse Ronan's performance in this film to be as great as her previous ones, (such as "Brooklyn" and "The Grand Budapest Hotel"), but I still think her performance is solidly good. Laurie Metcalf is great as Christine's mother with a few brilliant scenes that left me impressed. Lucas Hedges who plays Danny, one of Christine's classmates, is about as terrific as he was in "Manchester by the Sea," and delivers a small but emotional scene in the film.

Much like "The Edge of Seventeen," "Lady Bird" takes itself so personal with its story and characters, and for what I can say about these two movies, they're just pretty good. My full opinion: 8.4/10.