Lady Bird, like many movies on high school kids, awkward relationships and coming-of-age tales, is a hilarious look on life and the wonders of the world that we all face. Female-driven and downright funny, Lady Bird stands alone because it does not try to own the idea that the film is solely about women and women only.
Sure, there are mother/daughter scenes that my girlfriend related with more but the dialogue is so well written, that it forced me to transport back to my own high school days and conversations with my mother during that time period of my life.
The film does an amazing job of presenting the world from Christine's, aka Lady Bird's point-of-view, while showing the real memories, hardships, lessons and choices made during these strange years of our lives.
I had a friend in high school whose mother might as well have played Lady Bird's in the film. The passive-aggressiveness and hard love from Christine's mom was so believable that it often made me cringe. It was almost too real.
As you watch the film unfold, you'll say to yourself "I've seen this story before" and you probably have. But there is still something different about Lady Bird with its hilariously written raunchy language, Lady Bird's amazing friend Julie, and the way in which it weaves in and out of Lady Bird's life and those surrounding her. There is a certain scene where Lady Bird's mother talks about her dad's battle with depression for years and Lady Bird telling her that no one ever informed her about it. Later in the film, Lady Bird's mom scolds her for not sharing more information with their family, proving the fact that there are moments in both the adult and children's world that do not always cross paths.
Since Ronan is so strong in the lead role, we often forget that she is just a teenager that hasn't been through some of the really hard things in life just yet. She hasn't gotten too drunk, lost a job, kept a family and children happy, found or lost out on success, paid bills, been late on a credit card payment, had a really rough day at work, and so much more.
Lady Bird's mom, however, has been. She may come off as scary to others, but in all fairness, her own mother was an abusive drunk, and she's been through a little more in life then many of these high school kids. It's not always as easy as some people make it out to be. I think we also see that Lady Bird can be a little intimidating as well with her confidence and free-spirit attitude roaming the halls of school and her home. She is kind and loving, yet up front and blunt.
In my family, my brother is a spitting image of my dad in every way. They bash heads the most because my dad sees his own flaws in my brother, and I believe that's hard for any parent to accept. As we grow older, we find things about our parents we genuinely do not like as well, but we know they are just humans like the rest of us. They make mistakes, they have flaws and often, many of these flaws are passed down generation-to-generation. We also start to see our own flaws and I think Lady Bird absolutely nails this concepts and creates some genuinely funny, sad, and real-life scenes that hit home with the audience and make us fall in love with the characters.
At one point in the film, Christine says that she just wants to live through something, and what she fails to realize, is that she is living through something. We all are. She's living through lots of things. It just never feels that way when you're the one living through it.
51 out of 74 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Tell Your Friends