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'Lady Bird' is a coming-of-age story retold in its actual setting, with characters that are usually turned into caricatures--the rich mean girl, the closeted teen boy, the indifferent boyfriend, the nagging mom, the supportive but self-involved dad, the sweet, fat friend--written instead as full-fledged people with backstories, redeeming traits and heaps of nuance.
The director's love for her hometown is evident in the way this film is shot, never shying away from showing things as they really are. As one of the characters in the film puts it, love and attention could be said to be the same thing, and the director's attention here is singularly focused on this small story in a small town. There is a relatability to every scene and dialogue, which is where the writer's careful restraint makes every sentence shine and sparkle.
This very same commitment to economy, however, stands in the way of more fluid storytelling, with one getting snapshots of a single turbulent year of adolescence without a corresponding sense of the passage of time. For me, Saoirse Ronan's much-feted performance was also a drawback due to her shifting accent and a more intellectual-than-human approach to playing the petulant protagonist. Laurie Metcalf as the mother who is by turns anxious, proud, exasperated, uncomprehending and jealous of her own daughter is the true revelation here, and inasmuch as this particular love-hate dynamic has rarely been explored on screen, Lady Bird provides much fodder for thought for all mothers and daughters out there.
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Language: English Runtime: 1h 34min Year of release: 2017 Streaming Platform: Netflix
Hot take is a series in which I offer my first impressions of films from India and around the world.
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