Day 75 Lady Bird [2017]
Screenplay Greta Gerwig
Director Greta
Gerwig
Cinematography Sam
Levy
Music Jon
Brion
Leads Saoirse Ronan, Laurie
Metcalf, Tracy Letts, Lucas Hedges, Timothée Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein
Production Scott Rudin Productions,
Management 360, IAC Films
IMDb 7.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes 99%
I was worried about two things before I watched
this movie, and both relate to my review of Three Billboards (Day 46).
The first being that it would not match my expectations for it – I have been
looking forward to watching it a while now and had heard excellent things. The
second, which I managed to avoid for Three Billboards, being that I
would get caught up in all the hype around it, give it a high score and thus
not critique it as I would any other movie. However, I need not have worried in
the slightest. This coming-of-age tale of Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson
(Ronan) was beautiful in every way. The acting is phenomenal from Ronan, and
even better from Metcalf who plays her realist mother. Their on-screen
relationship is perfect, it is as if Gerwig has picked up a mother and daughter
off the streets of Sacramento and started filming them. The rest of the cast
are brilliant, from Lady Bird’s teachers, friends and love interests, to her
loving father, brother and brother’s girlfriend. I don’t think there was a weak
character among them. Considering I saw this in the cinema the cinematography
is not incredible, which I guess could be attributed to the suburban Sacramento
setting, but there wasn’t anything too original or exciting about how it was
filmed. As cheesy as it is, along with half of the USA, I am a big Dave
Matthews Band fan. They use his hit ‘Crash into Me’, a favourite of mine, and
so that got to me. I nearly gave the Music rating a 4/4 just because of that
song. The rest of the music is good though, it’s a film that doesn’t really
need music, but the soundtrack complements the movie nicely. As much as I
enjoyed this film I have to be honest and say that there was something missing.
It lacked a bit of depth that would have put it into the Hall of Film, because
at the end of the day, it was just another high-school girl having problems
with her mum, her best friend, boys and her future. The relationship between
mother and daughter was what made it special, but I can’t help but feel with
different actresses it may not have been the movie that it is. Negative
critique over because overall I loved it and I have yet to mention the other
reason this film has been a success. We need more female-centric films. If I
think back through all the films I’ve watched, how many of them contained a
female lead? If I just think back through the ones on this blog (not including
this one) I can only think of ten out seventy-four where there is a female lead
or leads who are not sharing the lead with a male character. Go back and count
them yourselves if you like. Even if I’m wrong you are not going to find
twenty-seven out of the ones left to make it a 50/50 with films with a male
lead. I think I’ve made my point. Lady Bird will hopefully be a catalyst
for Hollywood sorting out its gender inequality – go help out yourself and
watch it.
Acting 4
/ 4
Writing 3.5
/ 4
Cinematography 3
/ 4
Music 3.5
/ 4
HWF
rating 3.5 / 4