Lady Bird

[Mister Six]

Being a mainstream-guzzling fuckwit I've no idea who Greta Gerwig is, but I'm going to make an effort to find out after watching her directorial debut, Lady Bird.

It's a sweet coming-of-age comedy-drama about a 17-year-old girl (Saoirse Ronan) who hopes to escape the deeply unglamorous suburbs of Sacramento, California, where she lives with her confrontational mother and secretly unemployed father. The stakes are low and there are no dramatic abortions or suicides or anyone running away from home, but that's precisely why it's so charming and engaging.

It's also extremely funny, from quiet character moments to broader skits, like the American football coach who is drafted in to direct a school musical and treats the whole thing as a high-octane sports match.

Shame the posters (in the US, at least) aren't in the slightest bit representative of the film's tone, and instead make it look like a grim Catholic school drama.

[phantom_power]

Gerwig is great. She seems to specialise in white, middle class navel-gazing but does it really well. I would recommend Frances Ha and Mistress America , both directed by Noah Baumbach. She is also great in the video to Afterlife by Arcade Fire.

I haven't seen this yet but really want to as Gerwig is great and Saoirse Ronan is good as well

[Mister Six]

I usually loathe white middle-class navel-gazing, but this is charming. And, importantly, Lady Bird herself is clearly only just middle-class, with her parents just about scraping by. It's not about rich yanks in massive houses or their offspring living in a $4,500-a-month Tribeca loft that daddy paid for.

[Shit Good Nose]

I usually loathe white middle-class navel-gazing, but this is charming.

Ditto.  I think Gerwig herself is brilliant, but nearly all of "her" films (where she's been the star and/or writer) have been instant dislikes for me, particularly those she did with Baumbach and Whit Stillman.  They're all from that Lena Dunham school, mixed in with a little bit of mumblecore, two things which I personally think need to be wiped off the face of modern cinema.

I'll give this a go, though.  Like I said, Gerwig's great, and it's still incredibly highly rated on all of the platforms, which is quite a rare thing, especially these days.

[Dex Sawash]

[tag] RIP tautology thread [/tag]

[Talulah, really!]

. And, importantly, Lady Bird herself is clearly only just middle-class, with her parents just about scraping by. It's not about rich yanks in massive houses or their offspring living in a $4,500-a-month Tribeca loft that daddy paid for.

This seems to be a keynote of the "Greta Gerwig" character in her recent films (whether directing/writing/choosing the role) where you have a clearly well educated middle class liberal arts young woman but who is just about scraping by yet often tangibly on the fringes of people with real wealth, for instance the small flat her character lives in Maggie's Plan is actually tiny, basically one room.

Of the three films, I'd go Mistress America as it is the funniest and also most fully rounded character (the film lets you make up your own mind about liking her character or not, she is both open, charming and armed with admirable drive, she's also an narcissistic monster who creates chaos where ever she goes), Maggie's Plan, modern day relationship comedy with Ethan Hawke and then Frances Ha, which I like a lot but it seems to be quite divisive.

She's also added good performances to 20th Century Women and Jackie, give the Arthur remake a miss though.

[phantom_power]

I think what I like about her characters in the Baumbach films is they aren't meant to be that likeable, but she has a natural charm that means that in the end they are

[SteveDave]

I was waiting for something bad to happen. But it didn't. Apart from the boyfriend in the toilet bit but even that was alright in the end.

The dad was played by Tracy Letts who wrote Killer Joe and Bug. A fact I learnt as I watched the film.

[Wet Blanket]

Ditto.  I think Gerwig herself is brilliant, but nearly all of "her" films (where she's been the star and/or writer) have been instant dislikes for me, particularly those she did with Baumbach and Whit Stillman.  They're all from that Lena Dunham school, mixed in with a little bit of mumblecore, two things which I personally think need to be wiped off the face of modern cinema.

I'll give this a go, though.  Like I said, Gerwig's great, and it's still incredibly highly rated on all of the platforms, which is quite a rare thing, especially these days.

Likewise; I loathed Frances Ha, loathed it. But she was great in Wiener Dog. The trailer for this looks pretty decent. Was going to say Saoirse Ronan must be a bit old to be playing a 17 year old, but it turns out she's only 23 and I now feel fucking ancient. 

[Mini]

I'll probably avoid this... I know it's supposed to be good but Frances Ha was well received too and that was the biggest load of wank I'd had the misfortune to sit through. Until I watched Listen Up Philip.

[Twit 2]

Speaking of Baumbach, I tried to watch While We Are Young but thought it was utterly insufferable. I know that's kinda the point of those characters, but if someone's going to shit in my mouth, them saying, 'it's supposed to be horrible,' is not going to help.

[DukeDeMondo]

I thought this was really very special indeed. I'm not much of a Greta Gerwig fan, or at least I'm not much of a fan of the kinds of films Greta Gerwig tends to show up in, so I was wary of this. Good chance it might be a load of fucking garbage. But it was not a load of fucking garbage. It was beautiful and funny and warm and smart and wonderful. Throws all the shapes you might expect a coming of age story released in 2017 but set in 2002 to throw, but throws other shapes, too. Talks about class in a way that it's not often talked about in these sorts of pictures, for one thing. 

I adored it, is all there is to it. And I did not expect to. I could have sat through another three hours of it with very little bother.

[Steven]

I enjoyed it too, an abrupt "where from here?" type of ending though.

I also watched Blame 2017 last night which is a similar type of film, an ostracised girl with a history of mental illness trying to fit in in school through her drama class, though it does have a few stock-bitchy girl characters and a cliched school hunk asking her out for a joke scene when Carrie was 42 years ago. Written, directed and starring Quinn Shephard.

[Head Gardener]

[thugler]

Was pretty disappointed with this. I'm a big fan of gerwigs, but found this just underwhelming. A little too cheesy as well, with all the cloying music. Ultimately a very mainstream film, while well acted.

[DukeDeMondo]

I don't get this. Is the joke just that it's like Boyhood but with a girl? Because it's nothing like Boyhood. At all.

[Head Gardener]

I don't get this. Is the joke just that it's like Boyhood but with a girl? Because it's nothing like Boyhood. At all.

I don't get it either it just amused me for the typeface, I like this pic too

[Schnapple]

Loved this, and it's wake, am enjoying the various podcast interviews and Q&As that Gerwig is putting in. She is a total delight.

I think it will win Best Screenplay, maybe even Best Film, but I selfishly don't want it to, as it feels too slight and personal for that accolade. But yes, a brilliant film, instant classic, all the fuss it deserves.

[Technique]

The trailer kills me. I hate this film from that trailer. Just because I'm a bit unreceptive to puff pieces for people who are very keen to let people know they are very........ ''poor little misunderstood me - no one know how deep and full of art I am'

Walk it off sister.

[DukeDeMondo]

''poor little misunderstood me - no one know how deep and full of art I am'

I haven't seen the trailer, but if that's the impression that it's giving, it's really doing the film a disservice. If anything, the point is that she goes through life misunderstanding everyone else. Because she's young and full of insecurities and young folk full of insecurities do that sort of thing. It's not Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Lass. It's not that at all.

[thecuriousorange]

Looks a lot like Ghost World. Is it a lot like Ghost World?

[zomgmouse]

Really liked this. Felt a lot of things, the more it went on. Laughed a lot. A nice personal feel to it with so much emotion poured into it. Impressive debut for sure, even if there were a few things that felt like debut directorial stumbles, like the ending which felt a little tonally off. I liked the fairly episodic but streamlined nature of it and thought it was very good for a film of its genre.

[newbridge]

people who are very keen to let people know they are very........ ''poor little misunderstood me - no one know how deep and full of art I am'

There's actually a character in the film that parodies this cliche quite humorously.

[Custard]

Thought I was gonna hate this, after the first five minutes. But thankfully it picked up a lot, and I ended up really enjoying it. A really funny coming of age story, with a great cast

4 crooked teefs

[Wet Blanket]

I really enjoyed this too, might even say it was my favourite of this year's Best Picture noms. It's a lot wittier and more dry than the trailer makes out.

As someone who was a pretentious 18-year-old in 2002 it had a nostalgic appeal too, although I liked how this was only addressed quite subtly. There was no soundtrack of early noughties new-wave music or anything like that.

(Is it just a case of it being different when you can remember those years more clearly or have the last two decades been a lot less distinctive than the preceding ones? In 2002, a film set in 1984 would have looked to me like a completely different world. Does Lady Bird look like that to current young'uns?)

[SORTA SPOILERS FOLLOW]

The ending didn't ring entirely true for me. I know that it's a semi-autobiographical work and Greta Gerwig did end up getting what she wanted and enrolling in a New York college, ready to join the trendies... but I don't think Lady Bird would. I suspect where the character deviates from her creator is that Gerwig would have been a better student (and almost certainly a more talented actress), which would have given the leverage to get into the good school and out into the big city.

Lady Bird on the other hand is a character with more ambition than ability; and there are lots of moments that underline how she's much more dorky and conformist than she lets on. I don't think a real life Lady Bird would get off so easy. I think it's much more likely that the realities of life would trap her where she was. I'm not saying it should have finished on a down-note, just that I'd have liked the ending to be more ambiguous, maybe to have left out the entire NY epilogue and leave us in the dark as to whether she got any further than a 'wait list'.

[Mini]

Having said up-thread that I'd skip this I'm glad I didn't - it avoided the Frances Ha problem of spending 90 minutes in the company of an insufferable prick by actually making the characters likeable and funny. I'm glad it ended when it did because I was just starting to get irritated when the credits rolled. Good timing, and a lovely film all round.

[Custard]

I kinda think it should've ended at her going off at the airport, but I did enjoy getting a brief glimpse of her already making a tit out of herself at college. So many of these films end with college magically making them a happy, fully rounded person. So I thought that was a clever and refreshing move

[SteveDave]

I watched this film less than a month ago and have little or no memory of it now.

[VelourSpirit]

I'm happy with the New York ending. The moment where she lies about where she came from, and then the last part recounting her memory of driving in Sacramento was important. The credits rolling as soon as the phone call ends with no emotional reunion was such a gut punch, really thought that was a great place to end.

[zomgmouse]

The phone call was good but I just did not see the point of the church bit being in there.