Lady Bird: Sacramento, Teenage Love and Family

A perfect picture of middle-class american girl wrapped in comedic ways.

The title pretty much describe the whole movie but... if you are interested to know what i thought about this movie, let’s breakdown this movie piece by piece. So, Lady Bird directed by Greta Gerwig an actress that seems pretty much successful in movie industry (to be honest i don’t know who she is) one of her achievement is nominated in Golden Globe Awards through a movie called Mistress America . Lady Bird is her first solo project as a director and shockingly she nailed it as this movie already take six nominations at the oscar along with another great movie like Dunkirk, Get Out, The Darkest Hour etc. This movie took comedy and drama genre, a story about 18 or 19 years old girl who lives in Sacramento, Lady Bird is the name of the main character (of course it is not her real name) played by a cool and beautiful young girl Saoirse Ronan you may have seen her in several movies like lovely bones and Ronan.

Greta Gerwig:

"Saoirse is so transparent emotionally - when you look at her face you can almost tell what she's thinking. Not all actors have that. She has this incredible ability to master accents and physicality, and she's spontaneous and alive."

Saoirse Ronan and Greta Gerwig on the set of Lady BirdPhotography by Merie Wallace, courtesy of A24

From the posters it seems like another drama-oscar-nomination movie, and the title completes that picture too. But after i searched it on the internet and it says comedy/drama movie i straightly open the paradise of pirated movie and watch it. But, enough with the introduction lets breakdown this movie and remember this is a subjective reviews from the eye of a normal movie lovers i’m not a professional movie critique so..don’t be so hard on me.

The Main Story

As you know this movie tells a story about a young girl who lives in Sacramento with his middle-class family, she went to a christian school, Xavier High School. In the beginning of the movie we can see Lady bird having a conversation with her mother played by Laurie Metcalf, at first it seems like a normal mother and daughter time,spending their time driving on a highway but suddenly the conversation got intense, they had a disagreement and when Lady Bird can’t take her mother attitude, she open the car door and she fell from the car...intentionally.. At first i thought it would take a lot more minute to start the comedy part, and for me this is the right scene to triggered the curiosity of the audience to stay awake after a slightly boring conversation at the beginning, it builds a strong foundation for the movie.

There are already a lot of movies about a girl who having a crush with a guy and then they have a non-popular loyal friends like mean girl, but the main story may not be the strenght of this movie. For me the main story of Lady Bird didn’t intrigue me that much, but Greta Gerwig seems to be a good story teller so she can make audience to just watch and stop predicting about the story,because as i said people can predict this movie easily but if that what they do they will lose the fun. One of the part i like so much about this movie is the dialogue that flawlessly well scripted, the jokes is not cheap and dirty like other comedic movie, they can put a comedy inside a dialogue and makes it like an everyday conversation and the dialogue for the teenage cast seems appropriate for their age, i mean...the dialogue completely giving you a picture of how a teenager talk to each other and not too dramatic. The pace of the movie feels very comfortable, not so fast but subtly giving you a “quick” time every scene changes but that’s very normal and to me it is what differentiate a comedic movie to another it gives a little comedic nuance to the movie.

The Character

Saoirse Ronan and Beanie Feldstein in Lady Bird.

Lady Bird (Saoirse Ronan)

If there is one thing i love about this movie, it’s the character. I’ve never seen Saoirse Ronan as a main female character in a comedy movie and fortunately she really nailed it. Her stiffness put a life into the character, but on the other side she can play very well as a rebelious, smart and warm-hearted girl. But because i’ve seen her in another movie with pretty much the same character as a cold stare girl it feels a little bit awkward when romantic scenes took place. I think Saoirse Ronan has branded herself to be that kind of character but after this movie i think she has an opportunity to play various character ahead.

The Family

The Mcphersons couple looks very real and funny, but they have their own problems which is financial and from how they act they really described a life of a common American Middle-class people. The over controlling mother balanced with a very patience and soft father is well combined not to mention Lady bird’s brother who looks like one of a punk band personel and always with his girlfriend. Funny thing is the brother is not that “jerk” kinda guy like in another movie, and the most unpredictable personality is his girlfriend Shelly. From her looks it will you will likely to stereotyped her, but in much dialogue she is very nice girl who likes to compliment Lady Bird. The brother and his girlfriend maybe looks like they anti-social but actually they are very supportive person. And that kind of unpredictable character i think is one of the most strong element in this comedy movie because it breaks down all the stereotype that audience have.

Lady Bird’s Friends

The popular girl played by Odeya Rush also has some unique personality, she is not like another popular and mean girl character but in this movie she is described as a lover who always stick with her boyfriend and rebellious person, the interesting part is when she found out that Lady Bird is lying to her about where lady bird lives. Jenna Walton straightly forgives Lady Bird merely just questioning her acts, and this kind of character relieves us from popular girl character cliche.

Okay, i’m not reviewing all of the characters in this movie because i just wanted to highlight several character that has uniqeness in this movie.

The Technical

Soundtrack

Fit perfectly, maybe not some kind of soundtrack that you'll remember but in my opinion the soundtrack in this movie really put some colors in every scene.The soundtrack can really drives the audience feeling towards the situation, Jon Brion (music producer) really nailed it i think, the music somehow got some comedic feeling but not in a cheesy and goofy way. It's still kind of music you want to listen and hell, i want my life have that kind of soundtrack.

Cinematography

All right in this part i'm going to be a very smart ass so enjoy. So from my amateur observation of this movie, the colors in every scene seems live up to the situation, Sam Levy (cinematographer) for this movie from what i think, he really accentuate the colors of the background in every situation. It makes me feel that i saw a video from a handy-cam or a cam recorder except it has a really artsy angle, and it feels raw but smooth at the same time, like a montage. Like i said, the colors really blend very well in every situation of the character.

as you can see, the picture above really shows a two couple that are in love and feels joy in their heart. The bright colors of the sun that hit the trees behind them really living up the situation, it triggered the happy thoughts of the audience when they saw this scene.

For comparison let's have a look at this second picture, you can see the change of atmosphere surrounding the character in this scene. This picture is the scene when Lady Bird argue with her mother (if i'm not mistaken), the background colors feels gloomy and dark and it fits with the dialogue and the situation. Maybe you think it is dark because the set taken in indoor area but, i think they decided to shoot in some particular area inside the house to get this shot and the colors they wanted.

For consideration, at this picture which is also taken in indoor area, it senses more relieve, more bright colors and of course taken with different angles too.But, what i'm saying is i think it is intentional, to get a right atmosphere for delivering a perfect tone for the dialogue and the situation, i think Sam Levy did a really good job.

Conclusion

I like how the director delivered the moral values of the movie, it tells that tough love is hard to receive and sometimes people had to through a lot of things before realizing that. The most touching part for me is when Lady Bird reminiscing her life back in Sacramento, how the city feels and leaving an impression in her live. I think i can relate to that kind of feeling,a feeling when you can feel sort of attachment to the city where you grew up. Sometimes you wondered how fun is the live in another city but at the end you can’t resist homesick, Lady Bird senses that when she arrived at New York and i feel that too when i had to study in another city.The point that i’m trying to say is seems like everybody has their own Sacramento inside their heart.