The complexities of late teenage-hood, the nuances of exploring one’s identity and dealing with the back-and-forth sentiments of relationships between parents are all encapsulated in one raw and beautiful portrayal, “Lady Bird.”
Released in 2017 and directed by Greta Gerwig, the film follows Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) as she traverses through the uncensored and authentic experiences of a catholic high school girl, accompanied by her best friend Julie (Beanie Feldstein), and a complicated relationship with her mother. Through this film, she learns what it means to hold herself true to her own identity as Lady Bird — a name she gave herself – and finds out how to navigate the vague, misunderstood signs of love that her mother tries to give her.
The film starts with a rather abrupt and shocking scene where Lady Bird jumps out of the car during a fiery argument with her mother, since she felt misunderstood and invalidated about her college hopes and plans. In another scene, Lady Bird and her mother argue at the thrift store, since the mother thinks Christine is setting a negative image for their family by dragging her feet. Immediately after yelling at each other, her mother picks up a dress, and they both start admiring it, saying how cute it is — a typical mother-daughter best friend sentiment. The audience is left with an unstable and unpredictable tone as it illustrates their relationship’s full, see-saw image.
Lady Bird is unapologetically herself, with the film showing every unfiltered aspect of her character. This authenticity, showing the positive and negative sides of characters, makes the film real and invests the audience in their lives.
In school, Lady Bird and her best friend Julie are wallflowers, joining theater and not being “in” with the more popular kids. However, as Lady Bird falls into a rabbit hole of lies about her identity and living situation, in an attempt to make herself more likeable to the richer kids, the film takes on the class division argument and the desperation of having a good image.
Through this, she loses her special connection with her best friend Julie, who mourns the loss of the old Lady Bird. After an epiphany in which Christine decides to stand her ground and end the performance of this persona she had upheld after having a conversation with Kyle (Timothée Chalamet), she returns to Julie, as well as Lady Bird’s authentic, unapologetically imperfect self.
Amongst the themes of relationship complexity and identity, “Lady Bird” also depicts the struggle of sexuality, queerness, independence and religious contexts. People of all different backgrounds and experiences are bound to have this film resonate in one way or another. Even if it doesn’t resonate, “Lady Bird” is nothing short of an exceptional inclusion into the coming-of-age genre. It should definitely be experienced at least once in everyone’s lives.
Verdict: “Lady Bird” is an exceptional, raw, rebellious portrayal of the nuances that come with identity, relationships and coming of age. This film has the potential to be revisited time and time again as a comfort classic for its authentic characters and their heartwarming redemptions.
