I told someone I went to see Lady Bird. She asked what it was about. I responded that it was about a high school girl in Sacramento going through her senior year… (Insert crickets here) After the long pause she said, “Is that it?” I said, “That’s it.”

That’s it. BUT, it travels through her entire senior year from beginning to end… Her interactions with her family, friends and love life. This is Lady Bird…

Story: This is a really funny movie. It’s an indie, so, it lives in reality, but, it also moves through her year with precision… nothing gets belabored. Written and directed by Greta Gerwig, she does a great job of taking something that we all go through – our senior year of high school – and turning it into satire.

Gerwig covers it all… friends, lovers and sexuality… popularity… house parties… college applications… critical mothers… All of it. It really is an unremarkable topic that she turned into an entertaining story. Let’s see what the Academy has to say about it…

Performances: Saoirse Ronan as Lady Bird is unrestrained. She displays Lady Bird’s emotions at the highest level. As expected, everything is at its most dramatic level because, she is a 17-year-old girl. We get that clearly.

Her father is sweet… Her brother is obnoxious and his girlfriend lives with them. It’s a lot to deal with. But, Laurie Metcalf as her mother is such an extreme. Her approach to Lady Bird is inconsistent; one minute she’s supporting Lady Bird as Lady Bird and the very next she’s forcing her to use her given name of Christine. Not a good perspective with a teenage girl…

The only other performances that were interesting were Lucas Hedges as Danny, her first boyfriend in the film and Timothee Chalamet as Kyle, her next boyfriend in the film. Both relationships run their course with extreme and drama…

Saoirse Ronan, Lucas Hedges and Timothee Chalamet are young actors to watch…

Visual: This looks like high school… the kids look like teenagers. It’s an indie and it looks like it. But, the one thing that is most highlighted is the City of Sacramento. Lady Bird talks a great deal about growing up in Sacramento and being in Sacramento. Like many stories about New York City, Sacramento ends up being one of the main characters.

P. S. It looks like Sacramento…

Rating: B+. Sometimes indie film are just stories about everyday people living their lives. I feel like this is one of those films. But, Greta Gerwig found a way to give it a little extra oomph. It’s very akin to the way foreign films are made… the story moves through time without dwelling in the scenes. We get the point without being held captive in it. Good job Greta Gerwig…

See this movie on netflix on a raining day when you have nothing else to do…