The Lady Bird Diaries (2023) Poster

User Reviews

Review this title
4 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
9/10
A Beautiful Intimate Portrait of Lady Bird
JustCuriosity11 March 2023
Lady Bird Diaries was enthusiastically received in it's world premiere at SXSW Film Festival in Austin. It is a beautiful picture that presents Lady Bird's perspective through excerpts of the audio diaries that she kept while she was First Lady. It provides her perspective and her and her family's struggles during the 5 extremely difficult years of his Presidency. Of course, she speaks to all of the powerful events of the era from the assassinations, civil rights, legislative successes to Vietnam. Special attention is paid to her role in environmental and beautification work. She was a remarkable and underestimated individual.

At the end of the screening, Luci Baines Johnson spoke from the audience and was clearly grateful for the amazing showcase that the film had given her late mother's voice. The film is a loving and supportive film meant to highlight Lady Bird's role rather than provide a critical view of a complicated and difficult presidency. It was certainly carefully edited from about 123 hours of original tapes. It was very enjoyable for those of us who love history and politics. It certainly brings to life the Lady Bird's remarkably inciteful and caring voice. It also shows how incredibly difficult those years were for her and her family thrust into the Presidency under the worst possible circumstances.
3 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
Porter on Lady Bird!
kjbllc12 May 2023
Dawn Porter, former attorney with ABC, now film maker, and produced "The Lady Bird Diaries." One of the most liberating documentaries I have had the opportunity to screen. The images of Carmichael, King, Eartha Kitt, and Marshall were very deliberate and the documentary is so eloquent in its delivery.

The Obama's were afforded a private screening in Martha's Vineyard.

I was touched by Ms. Porter's commentary where she briefed on her meeting John Lewis at a museum admiring his own exhibits!!!

She met with John Lewis at his home where they watched on Dawn's laptop!!!

Sojourner Truth HUSH=head up stream hurry.
3 out of 7 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
thank god for...
ops-5253515 November 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Brilliant documentary making, and thank you ms porter for revealing it the way you and your crew has done.may i raise a ''dacapo'', there are even more history out there to document...

the frase ''ladybird'' have always had a mystery sound to it, so for those who has forgotten all about president lyndon b. Johnson, about his life and presidency shown and told through the lady birds lense and mic to reminiscence and afterthought..

its really a prefront figurine of the women liberation, showing that the job as a first lady aint a job of raising champagne glasses and joy ever after. A tough lady she mustve been. A big recommend from the grumpy old man.
2 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
3/10
Manipulated recordings to give a false impression
edmundws5 December 2023
I was intrigued and impressed by the movie's coverage of a conversion between Lady Bird and LBJ regarding Walter Jenkins -- particularly her strong defense of the aide and push back against LBJ. But after listening to the actual full conversation elsewhere, I was shocked to discover the documentary producers sliced, diced and blatantly manipulated the conversation. It's one thing to edit for length and clarity, but they rearranged comments, put them out of order and altered their meaning. It's inexcusable for a doc to play with historic recordings like that, and made me question what else they twisted in a documentary I otherwise would have loved. If you want to take that kind of liberty with historic tape recordings or transcripts -- even in the name of celebrating your subject or trying to capture her spirit -- hire actors and make it a biographical "inspired-by-actual-events" movie.
3 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Recently Viewed