Greta Gerwig comes of age with ‘Lady Bird’
Greta Gerwig has been an actress in 25 films, a co-writer on five and co-director of one. She’s assembled wardrobes, done makeup and — thanks to her 5 ft.-9 in. height — held the boom mic. She has, in a sense, been building up for a long time to her directorial debut: “Lady Bird.’’
“I was accumulating my 10,000 hours,’’ Gerwig said in a recent interview in a tucked-away room at Lincoln Center. “When I finished this script, I thought: You’re still going to learn things but you’re not going to learn anything more by not doing it. Whatever learning happens now is going to happen by doing it. I just decided to take the leap.’’
It’s at this moment while contemplating the culmination of her professional life that a famished Gerwig first spies her lunch. “Oh my goodness it’s a sammy,’’ she exclaims.
For Gerwig, it comes natural that the most earnest inner ambitions can appear, from the outside, a little funny, too.
Gerwig’s “Lady Bird,’’ which opened Friday in New York and Los Angeles, is a loosely autobiographical coming-ofage story about a high-schooler named Christine with the selfproclaimed nickname “Lady Bird’’ (Saoirse Ronan) who aspires beyond her middle-class Sacramento life. From Catholic school, she dreams of New York or at least “Connecticut or New Hampshire, where writers live in the woods.’’
The film — richly detailed, shrewdly observed, altogether a beauty — has already found some of the best reviews of the year, placing it among the early awards-season favourites. It boasts numerous revelations — including the performances by Ronan and her fictional mother Laurie Metcalf — but none more so than this one: Gerwig is an exceptional, fullyformed filmmaker, right out of the gate.