Lady Bird (2017)

Greta Gerwig's 2017 directors debut, Lady Bird is a coming of age story set in early 2000s Sacramento. Lady Bird follows the life of high school senior, Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson. The film's main theme is identity as we see Lady Bird fight to be her own person despite her striking similarity with her mother.

This coming of age story is distinctly different from most. Usually, coming of age stories with a female lead focus on a romance and how it changes her life. Despite Lady Bird meeting boys and having a romance, this film is not a romantic love story. It is instead a very personal love letter to youth that focuses on the relationship between mother and daughter. This makes Lady Bird feel incredibly fresh and unique, setting it apart from typical coming of age stories.

Sacramento is a good setting for the film, there's a clear lack of identity as it's kind of a mishmash between rich and poor places. This serves to concretely solidify the theme of identity. Furthermore, the colour of Lady Bird's world is incredibly distinct and continues to use studio A24's signature crushed colour palette. In addition, the music is used extremely effectively in this film, to highlight key character moment and helps a few more tears well up in the eyes of viewers.

Saoirse Ronan gives an excellent performance as Lady Bird, this was recognised at 2018's Oscars in which she was nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role. Every performance in this film is terrific, everyone is giving it their all.

My only issue with Lady Bird is that it felt too rushed. It runs for 1 hour and 34 minutes, so it doesn't have enough time to give a proper conclusion in my opinion.

In conclusion, Lady Bird is an outstanding unique film, full of excellent performances from a cast with zero 'big' names. It's so clear to me why it received a Best Picture Nomination at 2018's Oscars. You owe it to yourself to watch this movie.