As well as this, I know the feeling of growing up in a poor area of a city, growing up on the wrong side of the tracks, or the wrong side of the highway in my case, making comments that I never knew how much they hurt my parents until I grew up. There are a couple of facets in this film I deeply relate to, one of which is that I graduated high school in the same year the film was set, so from a sheer nostalgic level this film produced a lot of feels. Image Credit: A24įor me where the film works the best is in its story, which uses these fantastically created characters to help show the pressures someone from the ‘wrong side of the tracks’ goes through just trying to get a foothold in the world. There is a beauty to Sacramento that Lady Bird captures in moments like this. I think in the future this film will be looked back to like Scott Pilgrim as a film with a cast ahead of its time. Though on the flipside, this is probably a complete 180 from the character Timothée Chalamet played in Call Me by Your Name ( see review), when you can play compassionate and punchable with equal veracity, then you are a big threat going forward. After Manchester by the Sea ( see review) and Thee Billboards ( see review) it is nice to see Lucas Hedges play someone that is not an ass. It was great to see Beanie Feldstein in a more substantial role, she has amazing comic timing and I would love to see her headline her own project soon. Instead, these feel like real characters with real lives that both help Lady Bird on her journey of self-discovery, as well as in some cases actively hindering it. Now, this might just sound like the usual archetypes that you would see in a film of this nature, but not in Lady Bird. You have Lady’s bestie Julie (Beanie Feldstein), the queen bee Jenna (Odeya Rush), the good Catholic boy Danny (Lucas Hedges), and of course the rebel Kyle (Timothée Chalamet). He is the peacemaker in the family, but behind the smiles, there is a struggle, and you see it in his performance and it is something I can deeply relate too.Īs well as Lady Bird’s family there is also all her friends, or sometimes ‘friends’, at school, this is a coming of age film of course. As well as this, Tracy Letts is really strong playing her father and Marion’s husband Larry. There is both a duality to their performances but also each performer makes it their own, and this is just amazing to watch. There is a strength to their performances which sometimes presents itself as stubbornness and other times as deep caring. Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf have such an amazing chemistry with each other so much so that they can go from loving to antagonistic and then back again in the space of a moment and it feels natural to the characters and not in any way forced. Because of this, the casting of the film is central to whether it will flop or shine, and I am glad to say it is the later. Image Credit: A24Īt the heart of Lady Bird is the relationship between her and her mother, also a little bit about how beautiful Sacramento is, but mostly that first bit. So as Lady Bird enters her last year of high school this tension builds both at home and at school.Īt the heart of the film is the relationship between Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf’s characters, and it is amazing to watch.

For example, she does not want to go to a local college, she wants to go to the east coast where real culture is. Lady Bird loves her family, but she also kind of resents them and Sacramento for not being cultured enough. Who is trying everything possible to help their children thrive when they could not, like sending them to a good Catholic School. poor family living on the outskirts of Sacramento. Lady Bird’s family is a hard-working but financially limited i.e. After sharing a wonderful moment it soon devolves into an argument and Lady Bird jumps out of the moving car. So to set the scene, it is 2002 and Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) and her mother Marion (Laurie Metcalf) are coming home from a long trip visiting colleges in their home state of California.

So today we are going to look at this magnificent insight into families under stress, yet still being resolute in the face of it all. Well this year I made sure that this would not happen again and the last film on that list is Lady Bird and it has finally been released here in Australia. Well, Moonlight went on to win the Best Picture Oscar at the Academy Awards, and I felt a bit foolish for missing it. Last year I missed seeing Moonlight in the cinemas, due to its very limited release near me.

Odeya rush lady bird