LADY BIRD
Yesterday, I finally got round to watching Lady Bird. Spoiler alert, I loved it. No, better yet, I adored it.
I've been wanting to watch it ever since I first heard about it, via a chance post on Instagram which gushed about the brilliance, humility and beauty of the film.
Ladybird is the first film to be written and directed by Greta Gerwig, a talented American actress and filmmaker with a knack for spotting the unusual and the beautiful nestled in the mundane workings of everyday life. Starring the phenomenally talented Saoirse Ronan in the title role, Lady Bird is, to an extent, a semi-biographical depiction of Gerwig's adolescent years.
Set in the lush Californian city of Sacramento, a place filled with endless sunshine, baby blue skies, neon lights, serene expanses, and a pastel-hued Americana meets dreamworld vibe, the film follows Christine McPherson, self-referred to as Lady Bird, throughout her final year of high school.
Although the premise of the story isn't a blazing promise of drama, adventure, action, a feature that characterises most independent films, what this story is, is an emotive, sensitive, honest, accurate, joyous celebration and exploration of teenage life.
I loved watching Lady Bird navigate love, friendships, family, sex, self-discovery, school, the future, herself. I loved reminiscing and revelling in the nostalgia of those younger, formative years. Where home doesn't feel big enough anymore, and you're counting down the days till you escape to something, somewhere bigger, better, bolder, brighter. That feeling that there is more out there to discover, enjoy, experience. There just has to be. Where everyday you live your life in the same way you've always done, cocooned in the familiarity and comfort of what and who you've always known, but your mind is dreaming of wild and wondrous things, all the while plotting your escape. And yet... and yet there's a peculiar way your heart breaks at the thought of leaving it all behind.
Oh how I loved being immersed in that feeling again.
I also loved Lady Bird's wit, selfishness, certainty, boldness, coupled with her fragility, confusion and sensitivity. Ronan makes her character feel so authentic, a steam roller blowing hot and cold, racing up and down, never knowing whether she's in or out, in that way only teenage hormones can. I loved the magic of Sacramento, California, the sunshine state, and imagining my adolescence playing out against such a cinematic backdrop. Everything about this film felt like a rose-hued, summery dream, which made the contrast with Lady Bird's complex, and not always pretty, journey of self-discovery even more perfect.
But I think the thing I loved most about Lady Bird, was its accurate portrayal of the mother-daughter relationship. Seeing Lady Bird and her mother, played by the wonderful Laurie Metcalf, trying to figure one another out, sometimes succeeding, sometimes wounding, reminded me so acutely of my relationship with my own Mum. I've never watched a film that has captured that turbulent, fiercely loving, rollercoaster of a relationship so well. Both Lady Bird and her mother a strong-minded, determined, opinionated characters with a tendency to misunderstand one another, yet I love how they fall back in sync within the breath of a sentence, the spur of a moment. It reminds you that all there ever is, when everything else is stripped away, is love.
So Lady Bird. One of the highest rated films of all time, just behind Toy Story 2. What a film. What a masterpiece. What an adventure. Every January for the last five years, I seem to have ended up watching a indie coming-of-age film, but honestly, Lady Bird is, without doubt, the best one I've seen yet.
