I thought I'd be the one to break this movie's perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Not that my posts actually get picked up by RT, but in spirit at least. I respect Greta Gerwig as a unique and creative voice, but I've never particularly cared for her. Nothing in the trailer seemed that special to me, and this ended up being one that I mostly went to out of a sense of obligation to see as much as I could. I knew that the film was supposta be lightly autobiographical for writer/director Gerwig, but what I didn't expect was how it'd be lightly autobiographical for me as well.
Saoirse Ronan is Lady Bird, a girl entering her senior year in high school, rebelling against the world, and deadset on leaving her hometown of Sacramento. Why did I overly connect to it? It was set in 2002-2003, which was also my senior year. She was at a Catholic school. Her relationship with her parents mirrored mine (sweet with Dad, add odds with Mom). The way she saw college as an escape from everything she grew up with. Oh and even little details, like how she got in trouble for her Student Council campaign posters. Cause that happened to me too. In the first scene, an unpleasant conversation with her Mom leads her to jump out of a moving car. I almost felt like doing that with the movie because it hit way too close to home, and I was not prepared for that.
Thankfully, I did not end up hitting the eject button, and stayed with the movie. I don't know that it particularly did anything different when it comes to these angsty teenage movies, but it somehow felt different. It could be how well I connected to it, it could be how well it was put together. I just know that Lady Bird is my spirit animal
Lady Bird – \m/ \m/ \m/ \n