Movie Review: Lady Bird

4.5 stars out of 5

First of all, it’s kind of cool that in theaters right now, there are movies called LBJ and Lady Bird. Second of all, I have made no secret over the past years that I am a huge fan of Greta Gerwig. And now I’m so proud of her for crafting such an accomplished directorial debut, also serving as the writer. This film is completely her vision.

I held off on listening to the recent Fresh Air interview with Gerwig, because I didn’t want to know how autobiographical the film was. But, like main character Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson, Gerwig did grow up in Sacramento and probably would’ve been a high school senior in 2002. It’s a coming-of-age story, a love letter to a hometown, and an expression of hard-won love for one’s family, zeroing in on the mother-daughter dynamic.

It was a coup to cast the great Saoirse “Almost Every Vowel In My First Name, All I Need Is U” Ronan as Lady Bird. I’ve already sung her praises in The Grand Budapest Hotel and Brooklyn. It’s hard to believe that the same actress from Brooklyn is here a completely realistic, somewhat disaffected California teenager.

There is so much sweetness in this movie, so much heart, between Lady Bird and her BFF (a terrific Beanie Feldstein), her boyfriend (Lucas Hedges, who was so great in Manchester by the Sea), her Catholic school principal or whatever you call the head nun (a delightful Lois Smith), her dad (Tracy Letts), and her mom (the reliably wonderful Laurie Metcalf) — when she’s not in a screaming match with her. In a small role, I’d also like to single out Stephen Henderson as the fall drama director. He’s usually in deadly serious roles, so I was really happy to see him joyous in this. The film bursts at the seams with emotion.

Further kudos to Gerwig for one of the more believable representations that I can recall seeing of a family on a budget. The middle class isn’t always upper.

So many laughs in this film — I even clapped my hands together on three separate occasions, which is not something I usually do at the cinema. The spirit of Woody Allen smiles over the proceedings, with Sacramento filling in for Manhattan. Along those Woody lines, if Saoirse Ronan is the first Greta Gerwig stand-in we get to see in a movie, I look forward to many, many more.