{"id":6984,"date":"2017-11-28T18:51:08","date_gmt":"2017-11-28T23:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=6984"},"modified":"2026-09-09T10:52:57","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T14:52:57","slug":"lady-bird-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=6984","title":{"rendered":"Lady Bird-2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lady Bird-2017<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Greta Gerwig<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Saoirse Ronan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #700<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed November 28, 2017<\/p>\n

Grade: A<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lady Bird is a 2017 independent film released by actor-turned-writer\/director Greta Gerwig. It is a tremendous effort in her solo directorial debut.<\/p>\n

No stranger to the indie syndicate herself, Gerwig puts her unique stamp on the film with a rich, female-centered perspective that works quite well and seeps with charm and wit.<\/p>\n

The story is semi-autobiographical, based on Gerwig’s life and her stormy dealings with her mother. The story is well-written, well-paced, and empathetic as the audience views a slice of life through the eyes of a restless yet kindly teenager on the cusp of womanhood.<\/p>\n

Saoirse Ronan gives a bravura performance in the title role. Her birth name is Christine, but she defiantly changes it to Lady Bird in a show of adolescent independence, much to her parents’ (Laurie Metcalf and Tracy Letts) chagrin.<\/p>\n

Christine lives in suburban Sacramento, California, and yearns for a more exciting life in New York City, far from what she considers Dullsville, USA. Now, in her senior year, she is attending a Catholic high school.<\/p>\n

Christine applies to college after college, hoping to escape her daily dilemmas. Christine’s best friend Julie and somewhat boyfriend Danny (Lucas Hedges) are along for the ride.<\/p>\n

The period is 2002- shortly after 9\/11.<\/p>\n

The brightest moments in Lady Bird are the plentiful scenes between Christine and her mother.<\/p>\n

The chemistry between Ronan and Metcalf is terrific, and I genuinely buy them as a real mother\/daughter duo, warts and all. They fight makeup, get on each other’s nerves, fight, cry, do makeup, etc.<\/p>\n

I especially love their knock-down drag-outs, as each actress stands her ground while allowing the other room to shine\u2014feeding off of each other.<\/p>\n

My favorite Metcalf scene occurs while she is alone. Having gotten into a tiff with Christine and giving her the silent treatment while Christine flies to New York, Marion reconsiders as she melts into tears.<\/p>\n

At the same time, she drives away, regretting her decision and already missing her daughter.<\/p>\n

Metcalf fills the scene with emotional layers as she does not speak- we watch in awe as her facial expressions tell everything.<\/p>\n

Comparably, Ronan\u2014likely to receive her third Oscar nomination at the ripe old age of twenty-three (Atonement, 1997, and Brooklyn, 2015, are the other nods)\u2014successfully gives a layered performance as a teenage girl struggling with her identity and restless to see different worlds and get out of what she sees as a bland city.<\/p>\n

Of Irish descent, Ronan is remarkable in her portrayal of a California girl- sometimes selfish, sometimes sarcastic, but always likable and empathetic.<\/p>\n

The casting from top to bottom is terrific, and the supporting players add real meat to the story. Christine’s best friend, Julie, played by up-and-coming Beanie Feldstein (Jonah Hill’s sister), is compelling as the lovable, chubby, nerdy theater geek.<\/p>\n

Letts is perfect as Christine’s father, depressed at losing his job in the tough economy and having to compete with young talent as he sees his career slip away.<\/p>\n

Legendary actress Lois Smith adds heart to Sister Sarah Joan’s role- a by-the-book nun who is an incredible old chick.<\/p>\n

Finally, Hedges, seemingly in every film from 2016 to 2017, is emotionally resonant as Danny, Christine’s troubled boyfriend, struggles with his sexuality.<\/p>\n

Gerwig does it all with this film\u2014she directs and writes, scripting laugh-out-loud moments and eliciting heartfelt emotion from her enchanted audience.<\/p>\n

A hilarious scene occurs as Christine attends a dreary class assembly- an anti-abortion-themed one- by a woman who almost did not exist but for her mother’s decision not to have an abortion.<\/p>\n

When a bored Christine icily points out that had the woman’s mother had the abortion, she would not be forced to sit through the assembly, it is a laugh-out-loud moment.<\/p>\n

Lady Bird (2017), thanks to a fantastic writer-director and superlative casting, is a film that has all the heart, emotion, humor, and great acting.<\/p>\n

The film is intelligently written and draws the audience into its characters willingly. Gerwig carves a story, perhaps done many times before in film, but with a fresh and energetic feel.<\/p>\n

Oscar Nominations:\u00a0<\/strong>Best Picture, Best Director-Greta Gerwig, Best Actress-Saoirse Ronan, Best Supporting Actress-Laurie Metcalf, Best Original Screenplay<\/p>\n

Independent Spirit Award Nominations: 1 win-<\/strong>Best Feature, Best Female Lead-Saoirse Ronan, Best Supporting Female-Laurie Metcalf, Best Screenplay (won)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lady Bird-2017 Director Greta Gerwig Starring Saoirse Ronan Scott’s Review #700 Reviewed November 28, 2017 Grade: A Lady Bird is a 2017 independent film released by actor-turned-writer\/director Greta Gerwig. It is a tremendous effort in her solo directorial debut. No stranger to the indie syndicate herself, Gerwig puts her unique stamp on the film with … Continue reading Lady Bird-2017<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[348,49,11649,192,41,215,211],"tags":[6571,5838,7347,2921,12613,11811,1739,1809,4059,4865,5993,2884,3311],"class_list":["post-6984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2017-movie-reviews","category-comedies","category-coming-of-age","category-dramas","category-indiefilms","category-indie-comedies","category-indie-dramas","tag-beanie-feldstein","tag-daniel-zovatto","tag-danielle-macdonald","tag-greta-gerwig","tag-kathryn-newton","tag-kristen-cloke","tag-laurie-metcalf","tag-lois-smith","tag-lucas-hedges","tag-saoirse-ronan","tag-stephen-mckinley-henderson","tag-timothee-chalamet","tag-tracy-letts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6984"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24406,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6984\/revisions\/24406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}