Television review In a rare well-done Lady Bird drama, young Christine misses the small town to the big world

Culture|Television review

Drama

Lady Bird ****

USA 2017

Fri at 15.45 (K12)

Home town Sacramento feels like 17-year-old Christine (Saoirse Ronan) is cramped. She dreams of studying in New York and wants to be called Lady Bird, a ladybug. Movie Lady Bird follows Christine in her final year of high school.

Christine lives a twinkling ordinary youth in a working-class family ‘on the wrong side of the track’, exaggerates the willpower of her strong nurse Marion (Laurie Metcalf), seeks first contact with boys, tries to act in a school musical, and seeks herself.

Lady Bird is done remarkably well. All the characters are written and acted out very vividly. That’s why Mom and Christine’s bloody relationship at the center of the film flares up.

But also to bystanders, such as the boyfriend candidates, sensitive Danny (Lucas Hedges) and cynical Kyle (Timothée Salamet), nuances have been obtained with small strokes. The insecurity of their youth is also heard beneath the surface.

In the midst of it all, Lady Bird’s tragicomic search with her own contradictions follows relentlessly. The story progresses effortlessly without bloating.

Lady Bird is Greta Gerwigin (b. 1983). She placed her film in the early 2000s, when she was Lady Bird’s age in Sacramento. Gerwig has said no Lady Bird not autobiographical, but that he wrote about familiar things.

Gerwig had already gained a reputation as an actor and screenwriter, especially his partner Noam Baumbachin in drama comedies directed by. Lady Bird was the first film written and directed by Gerwig alone. He received Oscar nominations for both jobs.