Lady Bird (2017) Review

Christine “Lady Bird” MacPherson is a high school senior in Sacramento, California. We see her coming of age during 2002/2003 and the different events which happen during her final year of High School. Including her difficult relationship with her mother, friendship, love and sex.

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Lady Bird is the name Christine has given herself and something she wants her parents and everyone at school to use. This is part of her rebellion against her mother and everything else that she is supposed to do. The film addresses pretty much everything that you must deal with when growing up and being a teenager on the verge of then attending college. The trauma of being accepted to the schools you want to go to and then being able to even afford to go. Lady Bird wants to move to the East Coast and attend a college in New York. Her mother constantly tells her the family cannot afford to send her and that she must attend a local college in California.

I want to say that I throughly enjoyed about 90% of the film as I felt it was really let down for the last ten minutes with the ending included. If it had finished those ten minutes earlier or the ending had actually been changed I think it would have been a very impressive all round film. The struggles faced with first love, first time having sex, changing friendships and battles with parents or mainly her mother were all done in a fantastic way. Managing to balance the drama with comedy moments made it feel very real. In such a way that you could then really relate to Lady Bird and understand her freaking out moments and general take on life.

Considering that it was no big surprise what was going to happen next, I think the only time something was a small shock was with Danny. But again that was a very impressive thing to have within the film and created for some lovely moments that gave it all an extra edge. I liked that a lot, I might have just not been switched on for some of the moments building up to the reveal because afterwards thinking back to earlier scenes it was hinted!

The relationship with her Mother was both sad yet hilarious with the exchanges. They were too similar and pretty much made life hell at times for Larry her Father who pretty much got caught in the middle of it all. I am guessing it is something that you always end up doing with your mother as a girl with the needless and pointless arguments about well nothing. Something the film put in a more extreme way, but I guess some people really do live like that.

The love and first sexual experience side is something that can change very quickly moving on from Danny to Kyle like it was as simple as crossing the name out on the wall. The relationship with her best friend Julie was pretty good as well, even if she did just leave her for a little while. But that truly shows a great friendship that it can survive set backs and they will be there for one another. So much so that two scenes with Julie brought me close to tears, feeling so sorry for her. Being given the unrequited love and awkwardness were very good scenes.

Having the additions of theatre and being in a Catholic school really did add a little bit extra to some of the scenes as well. I thought everything fit together so nicely that is why I was left so disappointed with the final scenes and ending, it felt like a bit let down after everything was put together in such a good and meaningful way from start to finish. The brilliant leading performance from Saoirse Ronan who impresses me more and more with each film role I see her in. The support from Laurie Metcalfe, Tracy Letts and Beanie Feldstein were very good as well. Especially Metcalfe and Ronan’s many battling scenes together are very believable as mother and daughter. Lucas Hedge and Timothee Chalamet as two very different love interests, I thought Hedge demonstrated again his very impressive acting range.

I can therefore very much understand the hype around this film even if I was a little let down with the final act, a very impressive coming of age comedy drama which reminded me of The Edge of Seveneteen but it managed to do more and go further than that film.

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