LADY BIRD

LADY BIRD is a witty coming-of-age drama about a high school senior, Christine, who has renamed herself Lady Bird in an effort to separate herself from her family and gain her own identity.

Lady Bird is a senior at a conservative, Catholic high school her mother depleted her funds to get her into because the public schools had “boys who knifed other boys.” Lady Bird wants to please her mother, but she never feels good enough for her high standards. Her mother wants her to attend a community college, live at home, be more helpful around the house, and dress more lady-like. Lady Bird, who has pink faded dye in her hair, wants to break free and be her own person, but the desire to please those around her and fit in always creeps back into the picture.

Lady Bird longs to live in New York where people dress the way they want, don’t live in cookie cutter homes or live to impress the upper class in society. Her mother disapproves of her going to New York and reminds her she would never make it into a school out there with her poor grades. Lady Bird, fiercely determined to prove her mother wrong and get far away from Sacramento, applies to a handful of colleges in New York. She asks her Dad to fill out the financial aid section and makes him promise not to tell Mom because it will cause another fight. Lady Bird’s father is jobless and battles with depression but is a sweet, sincere man who longs to see his daughter happy. He agrees to fill out the forms for her.

Back at school, Lady Bird auditions for the school play. She doesn’t get the lead, which discourages her, so she feels like a failure all over again, but things turn around when she falls for Danny, the cute, charismatic leading boy in the play. The two begin to date and Lady Bird is filled with joy. When she finds out he is from a super wealthy family she daydreams of marrying him and living in his grandmother’s exuberant blue house in the fancy part of town, which of course she would pass down to them. Life is looking up for her until she walks in on her boyfriend making out with another boy. He is gay! Lady Bird is heartbroken.

Desperate to fit and with no desire to be in plays anymore she sucks up to the popular girl in school who cuts class to hang with some desirable guys in a band. The cool girl befriends her and introduces her to one of the boys in the band. Lady Bird smokes her first rolled cigarette and loses her virginity to him, which is a painful experience when she realizes she lost her virginity to a boy who didn’t care about her. She’s so over life’s disappointments. She ditches her band boyfriend to go to prom with her best friend later that week and has a blast being with her bestie.

Months pass and acceptance letters arrive for college. Lady Bird finds out she’s been accepted into her desired school in New York. When her mother finds out, she is furious about being kept in the dark by Lady Bird and her father. She refuses to speak to Lady Bird, even when she and her father drive her to the airport. Her father sends Lady Bird a letter he salvaged from the trash from her mother. Her mom wanted to give it to her but thought Lady Bird would judge her poor handwriting and spelling mistakes. When she’s at college, Lady Bird reads the letter realizing how much her mother loves her and has always done the best she can as a parent. It’s not until Lady Bird is in college that she realizes she loves Sacramento and has a new appreciation for her hometown, proving there is no place like home.

LADY BIRD is a charming, witty, emotional movie, with a surprisingly positive depiction of a Catholic school. The performances are particularly good. Saoirse Ronan as Lady Bird and Laurie Metcalf, who plays the mother, give rich, raw performances depicting the ups and downs of mother-daughter relationships. However, Lady Bird and the other teenagers are rebellious, so there’s heavy cursing, sexual scenes and teenage substance abuse. The authority figures at the Catholic school are depicted in a positive light, but Lady Bird gets mad at one nun and calls her an obscene name. She also gives an annoying pro-abortion response to a woman speaker presenting the pro-life position. So, the movie’s worldview is mixed at best. Ultimately, despite a somewhat positive ending, LADY BIRD has too many abhorrent elements to be acceptable entertainment.