Lady Bird flies high
Lady Bird (R13)
94 mins ★★★★
Many critics have been heralding Lady Bird with Film of the Year-level accolades, and it’s something of a surprise that this little indie movie about a girl growing into adulthood has garnered five Oscar nominations.
Although I don’t believe all of its hype, I can appreciate Lady Bird’s appeal.
It’s technically a coming-of-age story. An awkward, more unpopular than not young woman (Saoirse Ronan) negotiates the perils of her burgeoning sexuality and impending adulthood while trying to maintain her individuality and a healthy disdain for society’s expectations.
With her good-cop, bad-cop parents (wonderfully sympathetic performances from Tracy Letts and Roseanne’s Laurie Metcalf, also Oscarnommed), Christine ‘‘Lady Bird’’ McPherson (‘‘Yes, it’s a given name – I gave it to myself’’) is on the cusp of finishing high school and heading out into the big wide world. If only a good university would accept her. Meanwhile, a foray into romantic relationships proves complicated.
But what marks this out from anything you went through in your youth is the graceful wit of writerdirector Greta Gerwig’s script, which dances from truism to truism across dialogue so delightful, and sometimes gaspingly forthright, that Lady Bird’s journey feels fresh and interesting.
Gerwig’s evident strength is the naturalistic depiction of relationships. While she paints characters who subscribe to cliche, the push-me, pullyou nature of mother and daughter is touching and truthful: one minute bonding in silent tears over a John Steinbeck audiobook, the next exchanging wounded criticisms.
Central to this feeling far less irritatingly self-indulgent than films such as Diary of a Teenage Girl and The Edge of Seventeen is Ronan’s third Oscar-nominated performance as the titular angst-queen.
Makeup-free and spotty, her faded pink hair a weak attempt at rebellion, Lady Bird is perfectly pitched somewhere between appealingly selfdeprecating (‘‘It’s my tradition to run for office,’’ she tells her mother of her attempt at high school politics – ‘‘Don’t worry, I won’t win’’) and plucky enough to go for what she wants. We don’t need to feel sorry for her, because she’s not a loser.
It’s also refreshing to see the portrayal of lower middle-class folk living their normal life, without the story being strictly all about poverty. While Gerwig’s enchanting tale is unlikely to scoop Best Picture, and the Director nod is likely just the Academy’s pat on a female filmmaker’s back, Lady Bird zings with truth and charm. - Sarah Watt