Lady Bird (2017)
About This Movie
A headstrong Sacramento teenager navigates her senior year of Catholic school, her complicated relationship with her mother, and her desperate desire to escape to a college on the East Coast. Greta Gerwig's directorial debut is the most emotionally precise coming-of-age film of the 21st century, capturing the specific way that teenagers love their families and cannot wait to leave them. Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf's mother-daughter dynamic is so real it hurts.
Why It's a Classic
Gerwig draws from autobiography with a specificity that makes Sacramento itself a character: the thrift store prom dress, the modest houses behind chain link fences, and the quiet pride Lady Bird's father takes in his hometown all ground the film in a place rather than a generic suburbia. Ronan's Lady Bird is self-dramatizing, occasionally cruel, and deeply lovable, a teenager who is performing adulthood while still needing her mother's approval. Metcalf's Marion is the film's secret center, a woman whose love manifests as criticism because she is terrified of watching her daughter make mistakes she cannot fix. The final scene, where Lady Bird calls home from college and finally introduces herself by her real name, is a quiet devastation. The film received five Oscar nominations and launched Gerwig as one of American cinema's most important voices.
Fun Fact
Gerwig wrote the screenplay over several years, producing over 400 pages of notes and drafts before arriving at the final script. She set the film in 2002, her own senior year of high school, and many details are drawn directly from her life in Sacramento. The Thanksgiving turkey that Larry drops was a real accident that Gerwig kept in the film. Tracy Letts, who plays Lady Bird's father, is himself a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright.
Parent Note
The film depicts teen sexuality (a brief, awkward sex scene), underage drinking, marijuana use, and emotionally intense arguments between mother and daughter. Language is moderate. The Catholic school setting involves some religious themes. The emotional content is universal but particularly resonant for parents of teenagers and anyone who has left home. Rated R for language, sexual content, brief graphic nudity, and teen partying. The R rating is gentle; many parents would be comfortable with mature teens watching.
Quick Facts
- Year
- 2017
- Type
- 🎬 Movie
- Category
- Coming of Age
- Age Group
- Adults (Ages 18+)