Lady Bird – Ashamed (Recommendation)

 

Year: 2017

Director: Greta Gerwig

Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Lucas Hedges, Timothée Chalamet, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts, Odeya Rush, Beanie Feldstein, Jordan Rodrigues, Laura Marano, Jake McDorman, John Karna, Stephen Henderson, Lois Smith, Bayne Gibby

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNi_HC839Wo

 

We all have those teenage angst years, where we hate our mothers and love our fathers (mainly because they don’t ask questions). It’s amazing how, once the hormones set in, our priorities change. We think about the “type” of person we want to become, and try to create an air of ambiguity around the morality of how we got there.

 

Lady Bird is set in Sacramento, California, and the film follows the journey of teenager Christine “Lady Bird” (Saoirse Ronan) who is on the cusp of graduating and moving away to college. With dreams of more, Christine has to battle with her own ambition, her parents struggling finances, and her mother’s negativity, to achieve her aspirations of moving to New York.

 

This film delves into how shame can manifest into many form. We see how Christine’s mother, Marion (Laurie Metcalf), is disappointed in who her child has become, and expresses her desire for “Lady Bird” to be the best version of herself. This display of parental expectations and judgement is made even more poignant when Christine counters it with “what if this is the best version?”, which questions our ideology of perfection and how we are all expected to only ever present the good versions of ourselves.

 

Additionally, Lady Bird looks at how Christine feels embarrassed about her origins, from lying about where she lives, to asking her father to drop her off away from school, and saying that she “lives on the wrong side of the tracks”. Each moment of shame emphasises her lack of emotional maturity and understanding of the world. On the opposite side, we see how Christine’s reaction unintentionally causes a high level of anxiety and hurt within her father, an man who has recently lost his job and has spiralled back into a depressive state. Although he is unable to provide the luxuries given to her peers, Larry (Tracy Letts) offers her with something a lot more valuable, he gives her the freedom to find herself by helping her apply for New York colleges and financial aid.

 

Director Greta Gerwig was supposedly inspired by Howard Deutch’s Pretty in Pink, which is unsurprising as both dealt with teenage social class politics. However, this doesn’t mean Lady Bird is just another teen angst movie that plays up to every cliché. Gerwig beautifully balances the film and its characters. Christine’s charms and flaws portray her as a relatable character, and Marion isn’t demonised, but shown to be a stressed, compassionate, and opinionated mother, who wants the best for her daughter but find it hard to let go of her or “Lady Bird’s” pride. Ultimately, the story is simple and performances are beautiful. I left the cinema remembering that we shouldn’t be ashamed of who we am, as the differences we have are what make us unique and human.