LADY BIRD (15)

Sardonic high school student Christine McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) yearns to escape the suffocating regulations of her Catholic high school.

“The only exciting thing about 2002 is that it’s a palindrome,” she bemoans to her mother, Marion (Laurie Metcalf), who works as a nurse at the local hospital.

Christine’s laidback father Larry (Tracy Letts) reluctantly plays peacemaker between mother and daughter, who insists on being called by her “given name” of Lady Bird.

One of the nuns (Lois Smith) casually remarks on Saoirse Ronan, left, as Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson and Beanie Feldstein as Julie

Christine’s theatrical flair and the teenager auditions for drama club alongside impressionable best friend Julie (Beanie Feldstein).

To Christine’s dismay, Julie wins a lead role opposite dreamy classmate Danny (Lucas Hedges) while she is consigned to the nameless

ensemble. As hormones rage and Christine searches for acceptance from her peers, her friendship with Julie becomes strained and she pursues romance with an older boy (Timothee Chalamet).

Lady Bird is a sublime coming-of-age comedy drama set in turn of the 21st Century Sacramento.

This beautifully observed valentine to mother-daughter relationships earns tears and laughter in generous equal measure.

Gerwig has a sharp ear for the ebb and flow of pithy conversations, like when Christine asks her father if he can believe that it took Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette just 10 minutes to compose her hit, Hand In My Pocket.

“I can believe it,” Heavenly. he deadpans.