Lady Bird

I’m always looking for interesting, and original points of view in a movie review and I found one:

“The movie brings up tendrils of intersectional discourse — race, class issues, reproductive rights, mental health — only to leave them shriveling in the backdrop of the movie, their importance not even secondary to Lady Bird’s white girl problems. These topics were thrown into the film in the same way left-leaning people toss words and platitudes into regular conversation to make themselves seem “with it” and well-rounded thinkers, while simultaneously avoiding any meaningful discussion or real-life engagement with the issues…” by Aditi Natasha Kini TheWeek.com – https://tinyurl.com/y9hl9oh6

But I don’t agree with Aditi’s assesment of “Lady Bird”, I feel these issues swirling around in the background of the movie are intentionally not brought to the forefront because Christine, aka Lady Bird (Saoirse Ronan), is only mildly aware of them herself. Like most everyone in high school, she’s dealing with her own angsts and self-serving rites of passage, as it should be. If you go mucking around with a coming of age tale by telling too many other people’s stories, it becomes a mess. And still, writer/director Greta Gerwig was able to give us rich and nuanced supporting characters, particularly Lady Bird’s critical, yet very present mother (Laurie Metcalf) and easy-going, suffering silently father (Tracy Letts).

I’ve been a fan of Greta Gerwig’s since first seeing her in Noah Baumbach’s “Greenberg” – her a moment behind the beat energy, perfect teeth and introspective qualities have always been a draw for me in “Frances Ha” “Maggies Plan” “Mistress America”, but when I saw her in “Jackie” I realized she can take on a totally different type character. And now that’s she’s written and directed “Lady Bird” my enjoyment of her has grown that much more.

P.S. Do parts of “Lady Bird” bring to mind the 1966 film starring Hayley Mills called “The Trouble with Angels”? It did for me. Although, these nuns have an easier time of it with Lady Bird & Julie, then the nuns who dealt with their vintage counterparts.

T&T’s the Large Association of Movie Blogs (aka the LAMb) Score: 4.5 outta 5