BY DEEJ OSTER / VN EDITOR
“Lady Bird,” the directorial debut of writer/actor Greta Gerwig, centers around Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Saoirse Ronan), a senior at a Catholic high school in Sacramento, Calif., as she comes of age in 2002.
Her many adventures stretch from hanging out around town and selectively smoking cigarettes, to school dances and eating communion wafers with her best friend in the sacristy of the church to pass the time away.
In her adolescent antics, Lady Bird strives for independence: from her family, from her hometown, sometimes blindly without taking into account the effects on those for whom she cares most.
Ronan gives an Oscar worthy performance in embodying both the joy and heartbreak that come with growing older and moving forward.
She is full of charm, acts drunk and bubbly when talking to the boys she likes and overall is trying to forge her own path in this world.
When interacting with her mother (Laurie Metcalf), both actors spark with chemistry as if actually mother and daughter.
Bonding and butting heads, it’s their relationship that takes the main stage in the film.
The film engages the audience in letting the characters themselves be – instead of being that which is said.
Giving each character depth, Gerwig swirls them into each other, making obvious how meticulous she was when bringing this feature together.
A major theme is home, or where you come from.
Stopping to appreciate what you have, while you have it is something hard to do when so young.
The film plays off this tastefully in the capturing of the seemingly random events of her senior year.
The events aren’t necessarily connected, but they are, for they are her story, Lady Bird’s grand adventures.
“Lady Bird” is wonderfully funny, and is such an enjoyable, easy watch, I had to see it a few more times.
I highly recommend catching this movie in theatres before the Academy Awards in February.
