Author Spotlight
Sydney Decker
In an interview with IndieWire, writer and director of “Lady Bird” Greta Gerwig said that “nothing in the movie literally happened in my life, but it has a core of truth that resonates with what I know.” It’s this theme that makes the movie feel so familiar and relatable with its audience — or at least it did with me, with the desire to get as far from your hometown as possible after highschool, while also balancing the feeling of nostalgia associated with leaving.
Although it came out in 2017, “Lady Bird” caught my attention since it’s arrival on Amazon Prime. Not to mention its two starring actors are also in one of my favorite movies, “Little Women” — Saorise Ronan and Timothée Chalamet.
Taking place in 2003, the comedic, unpredictable coming-of-age film tells the story of a soon-to-be graduate of a Catholic high school in Sacramento, CA, whose life revolves around the goal of going to the east coast for college, “where culture is.”
The pink-haired, strong-willed Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson, played by Saorise Ronan, navigates many relationships throughout the movie, but the film mainly zeroes in on her battles and sentiments with her mother — all while going through the application process for college. Christine has a blunt and quite literal sense about her, shown in scenes where she screams or jumps out of a car when arguing with her mother — an image many teens dream of doing when arguing with their own parents.
The root of their disagreements is their strong, almost identical personalities. Christine transitions between love fests for her mother to screaming bloody murder at her.
Her mother often fears Christine failing, which to Christine seems ridiculing and insulting. Ultimately, her mother wants the best for her daughter. But her mother sees her as ungrateful when Christine voices her disapproval about attending Catholic school and rejecting her given name, Christine, for her adapted name, “Lady Bird.”
Christine has a faithful best friend, Julianne — or Julie, her attempt at a modified name a la Lady Bird. But Christine challenges their friendship when she chooses a more popular friend over Julie to earn Christine the higher status she thinks she needs to win over one of her crushes.
Her two love interests, Danny and Kyle, never ended up being anything more than just that: interests. Danny is the sweet, charismatic, musical-theatre loving boy while Kyle is the deep, gaslighting player-type who hand rolls his cigarettes so as to “not participate in our economy.”
Ronan provides screen presence that offers relatability for the audience, perfectly embodying the dorky, determined teen with a hot pink arm cast — earned when she jumped out of a moving car. You feel like you somehow know her in a sense, or maybe even recognize some of her qualities, such as confidence, compassion and independence, in yourself.
The production has subtle elements of comedy, yet is so raw and authentic in its realistic portrayal of leaving home. The soundtrack is filled with dreamy, acoustic ensembles, rightfully suiting California’s landscape.
The movie goes to great lengths to beautifully display California’s scenery, which contrasts with Christine’s hatred for Sacramento. In her college essay that she praises Sacramento quite affectionately, although she plays it off as simply describing it as a result of her “pay[ing] attention.” This is similar to how even though Christine can want nothing to do with her mother and vice versa, there’s underlying love and appreciation.
Christine’s nickname is never explained. The only clue is that she finds it ridiculous to blindly accept the name we’re given, showing her yearn to be independent and live a self-guided life. “Lady Bird” illustrates the bittersweet goodbye when deciding to leave home for college. It connected with me because although I want nothing more than to get to a coast and start my life, I’m sad to leave behind my family and friends and my childhood.
Leave a Reply