A Critique Paper by Catrina Karylle Ilagan
Lady Bird, a film directed by Greta Gerwig and released in November 2017. Inside the film contains meditations on parenting, money struggles, and how the future is never quite what we want it to be. But its most powerful and subtle theme is that paying close attention to the world and people around us is a kind of grace that allows us to love. The film reminds people of the real struggles of adolescence while also providing valuable insight into the difficulties that parents face, often in silence.
The film is a coming-of-age story about a teenager attending Catholic high school in early 2000s Sacramento, California who asks to be called Lady Bird, as she exits high school and grapples with her relationship with her mother. Her real name, Christine, much to her chagrin, is derived from a religion with which she has difficulty identifying. She doesn't want to be Christine, Christian's feminized version. She tells her guidance counselor that she has "no intention" of attending a Catholic college and wishes to leave Sacramento (her hometown) which she doesn’t like one bit and wants to escape it. The story depicts their love-hate relationship with her mother, as well as her adolescent journey, during which she experiences both heartbreak and joy in her relationships with herself, family, and friends.
In the end of the film shows how Lady Bird has changed. She acknowledges her love for her mom and her hometown. She recalls the first time she drove around the city and how different it felt to her while remaining the same as it had always been. And the fact that she wanted to share this with her mother demonstrates how close they truly are. She also refers to herself as Christine, implying that she has moved past her Lady Bird phase and is finally accepting herself for who she is rather than what she thinks she should be.
In the film, many of the plot points deal with controversial issues that teenagers still face today, such as grooming and abortion. Lady Bird was different in comparison to others, particularly because it discusses controversial topics that some directors felt were unnecessary and unimportant to discuss. In one series of riffs, for example, a male math teacher, young and perky, flirts with Julie, never stepping openly out of bounds but clearly grooming a curiosity, even a desire, that hints at grave possibilities. Also, in one scene, Lady Bird’s school holds an anti-abortion rally. A cardigan-wearing woman tells a gym full of high school girls that her own mother was going to get an abortion until "something told her it was wrong." Lady Bird interrupts. "Just because something looks ugly doesn't make it wrong," she says. "If you took up-close shots of my vagina when I'm on my period, it'd look pretty disturbing, but that doesn't make it wrong."
The film also portrays the true feelings and experiences of adolescence. The female-lead coming-of-age film that brilliantly and elegantly conveys what it's like to be a teen girl. Lady Bird refuses to accept herself in the film and talks about wanting to be someone else and living a life that is far apart from her reality, wanting to leave your hometown, heartbreaks, falling out and then reconciling with your best friend, and frequent fights with your mother.
On the other hand, the film's central theme was that nothing ever happened. Many reviews viewed the film as lacking an engaging storyline or dramatic occurrences that generated change and moved it ahead. The protagonist finds herself in the same spot at the end of the film as she was at the beginning, due to the film's lack of specificity and the stasis of its character study. Despite the fact that there are no epic fighting scenes in Lady Bird, there are always incidents that allow us to learn more about Lady Bird's existence. The major problems in Lady Bird's life are her family's financial struggles and her false belief that she despises her hometown of Sacramento. Lady Bird goes through a lot in the film, including losing her best friend, learning that her boyfriend is gay, and comforting her father after he loses his job. These may appear to some viewers to be uninteresting events, yet they have a significant impact on Lady Bird.
Lady Bird is a fantastic coming-of-age film in general. The film's elements were all carefully thought out, and the scenarios and such were all relatable. Despite the fact that the film isn't plot-driven, it manages to immerse the audience in Lady Bird's world. The film itself is a beautiful blend of wisdom and sensitivity, humor and grace. It also conveys the turmoil of a girl's growing up with great feeling. I certainly would recommend this film especially to my fellow teenagers.
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