Lady Bird

There's been a lot of praise for Lady Bird lately. 

So much so in fact that it's set a new Rotten Tomatoes record for basically being the most positively reviewed film in its tracking history. 

I think many are mishearing that to think "Oh my gosh! Lady Bird must be the best movie ever made!" when in actuality it just means that it netted a LOT of reviews (150+) and all were some form of positive.

So dare I be the one who disagrees? 

Nope. Lady Bird is pretty great in a lot of ways -- and very conventional in a lot of others -- but it's not the greatest thing since sliced bread like you may have been lead to believe. 

Lady Bird is the coming-of-age dramedy of Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson that follows her through her senior year of high school into her first week of college. Saoirse Ronan plays the titular character and carries the endearing film. 

Having let the film settle for over a day now (busy weekends = delayed reviews) it's enjoyable, which I'll get to later, but it's also nothing all that special outside of being a well made film. There's not any one thing that distinguishes this dramedy from any other girl-growing-up movie like say... The Edge of Seventeen and a lot of what it does is either pretty expected from a plot standpoint OR not all that unique to this genre. Not every film needs to come out and change the game so it's a bit of a minor point and a week argument, but it comes into play when I want to start thinking about a film's longevity and how it sticks with me the rest of the year. 

Mother vs. Daughter SMACKDOWN! This Monday on RAW!!

Seems like Mother won that round
and left Daughter in tears! Savage!

With that being largely my only gripe with the film, the rest of it is an enjoyable, decently funny film that is very hard to hate. Much like the entire film itself, Ronan is an endearing actress and her portrayal of Lady Bird captures a lot of phases that I'm sure teenage girls go through, particularly in relation to her mother. Along those lines, there are a few times that the script seems to veer for these characters into extremes and I think that's less a case of bad script writing and more so the length of the film. For example, the mother in particular makes some drastically extreme attitude decisions later in the film off what is unequivocally very good news and sometimes Lady Bird, in order to switch friend groups, switches attitudes/personas swiftly too. Maybe that's the point? But a few times it happens faster than I think they intended. I've veered from my original point that Lady Bird is endearing and sweet. The scenes I'm elaborating on are few and scenes where Lady Bird is simply being as a teenager are real, interesting, often sweet, sometimes funny, and entertaining. Watching this girl navigate through a fairly stressful time of life is memorable in the sense that we've all been there and all the things that come with that time: relationships, friendships, college searching, thinking about your future, etc. are captured well here. It helps that the entire cast is fantastic and the characters are written well, particularly all of Lady Bird's friends.

Daughter will now bring in her teammate: Boyfriend! Round 2, begin!

From here I don't have all that much more to say about Lady Bird that I haven't already. It's a technically competent film too with decent cinematography and the script itself is decidedly real in the sense that's its R-rated because, well...teenagers are R-rated. The hype surrounding all of the positive reviews may have you believe (if you're not listening to the "fine print") that it's the best movie ever and it's not. But it is a delightful one that provides a dramatic and comedic look at a young woman facing some of life's early challenges.

CONS

• Not all that unique in this genre space -- the plot is predictable and it doesn't do much to separate from the pack of well-made female coming of age dramas that we've gotten in recent years
• A few character attitude swings seem abrupt and a bit harsh 

PROS

• Well-written script with memorable characters and a real approach to them
• Great cast with Saoirse as a strong, endearing lead
• Funny and in this sense, realistic as well
• Captures the challenges of this age well, particularly relationships that one experiences

Rath's Review Score | 8/10