'LADY BIRD' A CASE OF OVERSELLING A FINE FILM

By Dominique Paul Noth

Saoirse Ronan (left) being directed by
Greta Gerwig on the set of 'Lady Bird'.

Truly enjoyed and recommend “Lady Bird” as an insightful addition to the youth quest genre -- a teenage girl growing up in 21st century America buffeted by the currents of romance, politics, religion and class standing.

But may I couch my praise in caution involving director Greta Gerwig? She has clearly mastered the no-nonsense follow-the –walking-body jump-cut style of the camera, the use of quiet supportive music by Jon Brion, and has produced a perceptive screenplay of adolescent sensitivity. It’s full of the kind of snappy but disjointed dialog that could stem from an intelligent teen girl who feels isolated and confused.

Aside from a fresh take on the universality of dilemmas about sex and impermanence – as films like “The Graduate” before her that spoke to the confusions of the 1960s -- she has struck a chord in the social times this film arrives in.

A majority of the impact comes from the fine actors digging into the script under the writer’s guidance.  Saoirse Ronan, who had already won acclaim for portraying the young Irish maid in “Brooklyn,” is captivating as the self-proclaimed Lady Bird, blindly fighting with an overly controlling mother and toying with her hormones and social-climbing issues at a Catholic high school.  Ronan is a great screen-acting mixture of ugly duckling and momentary swan without which the part wouldn’t fly.  Her sharp tongue gets her in the sort of trouble and mischief that audiences cheer.

Ronan is blessed particularly in a supporting cast including Tracy Letts as her always cheerful,  doting but financially inept father. His income struggles weigh heavily in the family largely through the mother portrayed  spot-on with tight lip and welling eyes by Laurie Metcalf, who can’t keep from criticizing Lady Bird when she also loves her – a situation many mothers will identify with. It is in some of their exchanges that the screen play is both particularly good and particularly manipulating. 

The film also involves character insights that are convincingly executed when you watch them but seem a bit too stagey in contemplation. There are moments when the high school life and messages seem not much different than the “Dead Poets Society” 29 years ago in its view of what kind of people are attracted to drama and writing.

Even as I encourage audiences to cherish “Lady Bird” for its insights and heart-tugs, I am a bit put off by all the hailing of Gerwig as one of the “freshest female voices of her generation” and a brilliant – as opposed to definitely watchable – entry into the directorial ranks.

First, at age 34 she has already been a decade’s presence as actress and co-writer, providing pinpoint cameos in films like “20th Century Women” and “Jackie” and less impressive leading roles in films like “Maggie’s Plan” where her need for a coordinated ensemble is more evident – and that “Lady Bird” assuredly has, which seems a sign of real growth.

Her arrival comes at the height of feminine awareness when many of both sexes are  distressed by the lack of female voices in movies and in essential roles in society.  So the emergence of Gerwig and “Lady Bird” is also perfectly timed to our cultural interests.

This film, and some of her past writings, are also drawn from her life and family in Sacramento, tapping the feelings many share in adolescence.  Let’s not put her on a pedestal until she widens her character canvas – and just enjoy the one she has given us.


For all Noth's recent film reviews scroll domsdomain.blogspot.com

About the author: Noth has been a professional journalist since the 1960s, and a founding figure of the American Theatre Critics Association.  After stints as national, international and local news copy editor at The Milwaukee Journal, then as an editor for its original Green Sheet, he was also  for almost two decades the paper’s film and drama critic on his way to becoming the newspaper’s senior feature editor. He was tapped by the publishers of the combining Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for special projects and as first online news producer before voluntarily departing in the mid-1990s to run online news seminars and write on public affairs and Internet consumer news. From 2002 to 2013 he ran the Milwaukee Labor Press as editor. It served as the Midwest’s largest home-delivered labor newspaper, with still active historic archives at milwaukeelabor.org.  In that role he won top awards yearly until the paper stopped publishing in 2013. His investigative pieces and extensive commentaries are now published by several news outlets as well as his culture and politics outlets known as Dom's Domain.  He also reviews theater for Urban Milwaukee.