Lady Bird (2017) is an A24 coming of age film directed by Greta Gerwig, starring Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf. Set in 2002, the film follows Christine McPherson or ‘Ladybird’, a 17-year-old Sacramento girl facing the hardships of being a teenager as well as the ongoing conflict with her mother Marion. Gerwig wanted the audience to resonate with Lady Bird in every way and wanted this film to hit close to home. She uses personal stories of when she was 17 to make the character as relatable as possible.
Ladybird goes to a Catholic high school and during her senior year she decides she wants to move out of Sacramento to enroll in university, which her mother doesn’t agree with. The reason being is that they would not be able to afford tuition for Lady Bird to go to school outside of California, telling us as an audience that Lady Bird and her family don’t have much money, as well as Ladybird having high expectations of her future. This is the first thing we learn about her personality, but her mother just simply calls her a ‘snob’. The first scene is highly significant to the rest of the movie because one moment Ladybird and her mother are crying together and the next, they’re shouting at each other, resulting in Ladybird throwing herself out of the moving car. This shows us the complexity of a mother and daughter relationship and how Greta Gerwig has interpreted it perfectly in this film. We hear many times from different characters that Marion has a ‘big heart’, but many would argue that her and Ladybird’s relationship is nothing but toxic. This could be ‘tough love’ which is shown every time the duo talks about university, or in the conflicting scene when Ladybird learns that her father loses his job.
Not only does Lady Bird cover the theme of a mother-daughter relationship, it also covers friendship. Ladybird is often seen bickering with her best friend Julie (Beanie Feldstein), giving us as an audience something to relate to. However, no matter how many new people Ladybird befriends, she’s always seen reuniting with Julie, resonating with the audience that their friendship is extremely important to them both. When we see Ladybird in the car with her pretentious boyfriend Kyle (played by Timothee Chalamet) and her new friend Jenna (Odeya Rush), she ditches them to go to prom with Julie. Personally, I think that friendship is a very important theme in this film as the audience can really relate with Ladybird when losing important people in her life, which we could suggest foreshadows her going to university in New York.
Lady Bird is an emotional rollercoaster from start to finish, showing how anything can happen within a space of a year. I thoroughly enjoyed this film and (in some aspects) I relate to Ladybird’s mannerisms, especially with her friends. I would recommend this film to an audience who may see themselves in Ladybird’s shoes quite a bit, as well as those who tend to reminisce on the past.
Comments