Hi guys it's Debbie and today I would like to speak about "Lady Bird" a recently
released film directed by Greta Gerwig and which currently has a grand total of
zero negative reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Good job "Justice League"!
"Lady Bird" star Saoirse Ronan in the lead role of Christine, a rebellious teenager
which dreams of moving far away from her hometown of Sacramento, which she
considers plain boring and without opportunities. Christine despises living
an average life and fitting into common schemes, to the point that she gives
herself the name of Lady Bird and refused to be referred to as Christine
and she does everything possible to be alternative and different, often going
against her parents, teachers, and friends. The film analyses Christine's life
attending a strict Catholic school and following her parents' rules, while acting
like a total black sheep. The plot covers topics such as respect, the
mother-daughter relationship, understanding working-class parents'
struggles, exploring the world of sex, the rise and fall of great friendships,
choosing the best options in education, maturity and not being ashamed of
economic troubles. And it follows all of these themes in a rather lighthearted,
innocent manner, because after all we're inside the mind of a teenage girl. But at
the same time the film never forgets to show the audience the darker side of the
situation, with Christine's parents deeply struggling with issues with money
and communication. I loved "Lady Bird". I was terribly afraid it was
going to be a fantsy, artsy, hipster film with just some cool still shots for Tumblr.
But I was completely wrong: I laughed my way through most of the film, I cried at
the end of it, I both hated and loved Christine. It was an emotional roller
coaster all the way through. On the one hand we bond with Christine because
she represents us during our teenage years, hating everything about life,
claiming that nobody could understand us, exploring this new life as adults, wanting
to be considered all grown-up and responsible but always knowing we could
rely on our parents whenever it came handy, fighting with everybody and in
general living a burden-less life doing whatever we thought was cool at the
moment. On the other hand as an adult audience we understand and feel the
pressure which is weighing down Christine's parents, we feel sorry for
them having to put up with spoiled and ungrateful Christine, which often takes
everything for granted. And we feel guilty because a
lot of things that Christine did, we did them back at a time and now we regret
them. So altogether this film is an mature analysis of the coming-of-age topic,
which often went terribly wrong with other films. Take for example "The edge of
seventeen". This film dealt with similar topics, as again we had a high school student
dealing with the various issues, including (but not limited to) a troubled
relationship with her mother. "The age of seventeen" had a ton of potential and had a very
dark background, which could have been developed in an interesting manner. But
instead of working its way through the topics with a mature and realistic
approach, but still giving us some giggles, it was simply packed with
situations which were desperately trying to get a laugh from us. For example the
scene in which the main character is discussing an unlikely sexting situation
with a random teacher: a moment which looked great during its 10 seconds in
the trailer but obviously didn't save the other two hours of film. "Lady Bird"
instead was very down to earth and although it had its artsy film moments,
which we know don't really happen every day in our life, it never presented
anything totally out of the world. And to think that this is Greta Gerwig's first
film as a director, I can't wait to see more from her! "Lady Bird" could easily
have become that typical film about the rebellious teenager with a character
development which is limited to her poster-plastered bedroom, but it's
somehow managed to take this overused concept and transform it into something
completely new and refreshing. I think the secret to success with "Lady Bird" is
the harmony between all the characters, the seamless way in which they interact,
creating a believable family scenario. I love the attention to details in the
parents' life, a feature which is often overlooked and generalised in many films
that cover similar topics. I remember in "The Fault in Our Stars" how
the main character's parents were introduced in a way which I can only
describe as... laughable. The last good coming-of-age films which felt as
interesting, new and refreshing as "Lady Bird" in my opinion were "Submarine" and
"The Perks of Being a Wallflower", which presented the concept of struggling at
school and in life during adolescence in a completely fresh and
original manner. And they had some great lead characters which stayed with us for
a very long time. As a matter of fact here Saoirse Ronan was absolutely
awesome in her role as Lady Bird, she is relatable, clever, fun, witty but without
being one of those hyper-cynical, over-scripted teenagers that we see in films.
Also I believe Saoirse Ronan is a beautiful woman but we could really tell
how in this film she was made to look human: she had acne scars, greasy hair,
messy clothes and I loved all of it! Hailee Steinfeld in "The edge of seventeen" went
to school looking like a total supermodel, with shiny new clothes and a
"no makeup" face. These are just small details but when you're trying to relive
your teenage memories or see a family situation which might remind you of your
own, you're not going to see yourself in a cool abstract concept if it's
unrealistic. I loved Laurie Metcalf as Christine's
mother, Beanie Feldstein as Julie.. I loved everybody in this film!
A long slow clap goes to A24 which is just giving us good film after good film:
"Room", "Moonlight", "The Witch", "Ex Machina" and I can't wait to see "The disaster artist"
and "The Florida Project". Let me know if you saw "Lady Bird" with a comment here
below. I hope you enjoyed this video, if you did make sure to subscribe for more
movie-related content and I'll see you soon, bye!
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