Period Drama: Lady Bird

Set in Sacramento in 2002, this period drama was nominated for five Academy Awards and won two Golden Globes.

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What It's About:

Christine McPherson has pink hair, goes to Catholic school, and gave herself the name Lady Bird. Trying to carve her mark amidst the craziness of her final year in high school, she joins the drama club along with her best friend Julie, where she meets Danny and the two fall for each other. While making her way through college applications, relationship troubles, her father losing his job, and a contentious relationship with her mother, Lady Bird discovers that sometimes you have to take a step back to see the things that are the closest to your heart.

Why You'll Love It:

• If you have or have had a bit of a contentious relationship with your mother, this movie will really hit home in a lot of ways.
• This movie will remind you of all the times you felt out of place and misunderstood when trying to find out who you were.
• If you feel like you got in trouble even when you were actually trying to be good, you will really relate.
• For those who were teens and young adults in the 2000s, this will make you feel a bit nostalgic. Subtle touches here and there make you remember exactly how things were then.
• Lady Bird is intelligent, even if not academically brilliant - coming up with insightful and important comments, but she isn't pretentious. This makes her character totally believable.

Why You Might Want To Skip It:

• If you've always had a lovely relationship with both of your parents, you probably won't feel much of a connection with these characters.
• Occasionally Saoirse Ronan's accent is a little off, so if you are a real stickler to accent perfection, the little slip ups may bother you (however they are extremely minimal, so if you aren't picky about it you are unlikely to notice).
• Like most films about adolescents, there are a few tropes that you can expect to see. Nothing too overdone, but not 100% original either.
• If you didn't feel trapped, highly misunderstood, or like all of your choices were being made for you, then I really would just avoid this. Not feeling similarly to Lady Bird in any way will make her look selfish and bratty.

Final Thoughts

I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this movie, but I ended up really enjoying it. I've often heard this film described  as being essentially a "love letter" to teenage girls and their moms, and in a sense that is true.  It really is about two people who are strong, but feel they are so very, very different trying to navigate their way through a time filled to the brim with change. Yet, in the end, the thing that unites them through all of this is that they love each other very much. One of the moments that stuck with me the most between Lady Bird and her mother was this:
“I just wish…I wish that you liked me.”
“Of course I love you.”
“But do you like me?”

This whole section on prom dresses really hit home for me because it really feels like the most accurate portrayal, from a teen's perspective, of a critical mother. So, if your relationship at any time was frustrating with your mother, I think these parts will really mean a lot to you, and you should check out this film.