What is “Lady Bird,” the movie everyone is talking about?
There’s a scene in Lady Bird in which Saoirse Ronan’s title character has a heart-to-heart with her dad. Tracy Letts (who plays Lady Bird’s father) tells her that she and her mom (Laurie Metcalf) sometimes butt heads because they “both have such strong personalities.” At the heart of the indie movie — which everyone you know has been raving about — is that charged, relatable relationship between those two strong women that makes Lady Bird so special.
That’s not just a personal opinion (although it is also a personal opinion, this movie is delightful).
This week, Lady Bird swiped the title of Rotten Tomatoes’ best-reviewed movie in the review site’s history from Toy Story 2, which is a pretty big deal. Especially considering that Lady Bird is writer-director Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut.
And the accolades don’t end there: Gerwig already nabbed Best Director from the National Board of Review Awards for it. Roseanne alum Metcalf was also recognized with a Best Supporting Actress win, and the movie landed in the NBR’s list of Top 10 Films of 2017. Plus, Ronan claimed Best Actress at the Gotham Awards.
So, yeah, we’re thinking chances are good this movie has big things ahead for it as award season gets going.
Proud to be one of @NBRfilm’s Top 10 Films of 2017! Congratulations to Greta, Laurie, and the whole #LadyBird family. pic.twitter.com/speVo1sPwK
— Lady Bird (@LadyBirdMovie) November 28, 2017
But what exactly is Lady Bird about?
We’re so glad you asked. Like a lot of coming-of-age movies before it, Lady Bird takes audiences along for the ride as Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson navigates her way through the wonder and angst of her senior year of high school. Lady Bird goes to a catholic school in Sacramento, California, though her dreams are aimed as far away from what she sees as her lame hometown and her “infuriating” mom as possible. There’s romance. There are musical auditions. There’s family friction. There’s a too-real prom dress shopping scene. There’s heartbreak and hope.
Where Lady Bird sets itself apart from the “finding yourself” movies that came before it is in its honesty. Gerwig set the movie in 2002, aka the era of her own adolescence, and you can feel that emotional connection in every scene. As she told Seth Meyers, she even wrote adorable fangirl-y letters to some of her own teenage music idols — Justin Timberlake, Dave Matthews, and Alanis Morissette — to ask permission to use the songs that had meant so much to her in the movie (Spoiler alert: they gave her the thumbs up).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNi_HC839Wo?feature=oembed
And Gerwig is clearly just as thrilled about all the attention her movie is getting as we are.
She told Rotten Tomatoes after she heard the news about the perfect 100% Fresh score:
“We put our heart and souls into this movie, and the last step of this deeply collaborative art form of filmmaking is giving the film to the audience and the film critics. That there has been such a warm reception is a dream come true. Thank you to everyone who has seen the film and has written about it so thoughtfully. We are all on cloud nine and using our tomato emoji more than we ever thought possible.
Awesome lady-powered movies for the win.