Lady Bird isn’t about Lady Bird Johnson, my original thought when I saw the title. It’s a mother-daughter story starring Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf.
Mother and daughter are at that stage in their relationship where they disagree about everything. I’m sure many and mother and daughter relationship has gone through a time like this. Marion (Metcalf) tells her daughter she simply wants her to be “the best version of her herself.” Lady Bird (Ronan) replies, “What if this is the best version?” If the whole film is as achingly real as that moment it will be an exquisite exploration of a daughter coming of age and her mother’s reaction to it.
It’s 2002 in Sacramento and high school senior Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson wants to get as far away from home and family as she can for the college. Lady Bird and her mother appear to be two very strong-minded and opinionated women. The clash is inevitable.
In a review in Vanity Fair, after the film showed in Telluride, Richard Lawson said, “What Gerwig does best is acutely capture the heady blur of the last year of high school, when old things gradually matter less and less as new opportunity and excitement tantalizingly tease on the horizon.” Several reviews from film fest goers have mentioned that Laurie Metcalf gives a very strong performance.
Tracy Letts, Lucas Hedges, Lois Smith, Beanie Feldstein, and Timothée Chalamet also star.
Greta Gerwig wrote and directed Lady Bird. It will be in theaters on November 10.