''Lady Bird'' is a 2017 American coming-of-age

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film written and directed by Greta Gerwig in her solo directorial debut. Set in Sacramento, California from fall 2002 to fall 2003, the film tells the story of a high school senior and her strained relationship with her mother. It stars Saoirse Ronan in the title role with Laurie Metcalf,

Tracy Letts Tracy S. Letts (born July 4, 1965) is an American actor, playwright, and screenwriter. He started his career at the Steppenwolf Theatre before making his Broadway debut as a playwright for '' August: Osage County'' (2007), for which he received ...

, Lucas Hedges, Timothée Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein,

Stephen McKinley Henderson Stephen McKinley Henderson (born August 31, 1949) is an American actor and director. Henderson trained at Juilliard School for acting and later became a resident member of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis from 1976 to 1981. He came to prominen ...

, and Lois Smith in supporting roles. ''Lady Bird'' premiered at the

44th Telluride Film Festival The 44th Telluride Film Festival was held on September 1–4, 2017, in Telluride, Colorado, United States. Director Joshua Oppenheimer was appointed as the guest director of the event. Telluride honored Edward Lachman and Christian Bale as the ...

on September 1, 2017 and was theatrically released in the United States on November 3, 2017, by A24. The film received widespread critical acclaim, with reviewers praising Gerwig's screenplay and direction, and the performances of Ronan and Metcalf. It was considered by many critics as one of the best films of 2017 and one of the best films of the 2010s. ''Lady Bird'' was chosen by the National Board of Review, the

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Leade ...

, and '' Time'' magazine as one of the top ten films of 2017. At the 90th Academy Awards, it earned five nominations: Best Picture, Best Actress (for Ronan), Best Supporting Actress (for Metcalf), Best Original Screenplay, and

Best Director Best Director is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards. It may refer to: Film awards * AACTA Award for Best Direction * Academy Award for Best Director * BA ...

. At the 75th Golden Globe Awards, the film won two awards— Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) and Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy (for Ronan)—and was nominated for two others. It was also nominated for three

British Academy Film Awards The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTA Film Awards is an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to film. The cere ...

Plot

In the fall of 2002, Christine McPherson is a senior at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic high school in Sacramento, California. She gives herself the nickname "Lady Bird." Despite her family's financial struggles, she longs to attend a prestigious college in "a city with culture" somewhere on the

East Coast East Coast may refer to: Entertainment * East Coast hip hop, a subgenre of hip hop * East Coast (ASAP Ferg song), "East Coast" (ASAP Ferg song), 2017 * East Coast (Saves the Day song), "East Coast" (Saves the Day song), 2004 * East Coast FM, a ra ...

. Her mother, Marion, does not believe Christine's dreams are possible and tells her that she is ungrateful for what she has. An argument between them prompts Christine to jump from a moving car, breaking her arm. Christine and her best friend Julie join their school's theater program, where Christine begins dating Danny, who attends the adjacent boys' school. Christine spends her last Thanksgiving before graduation with Danny's wealthy family instead of her own, much to the disappointment of Marion. After the opening night of the school production of '' Merrily We Roll Along'', Christine and Danny break up when she catches him kissing a boy in a bathroom stall. At Marion's behest, Christine begins working at a coffee shop where she meets Kyle, a popular student at the boys' school. Christine ditches tryouts for the new school play to bond with Jenna Walton, a popular girl, and they vandalize a nun's car. As she grows closer to Kyle and Jenna, Christine begins spending less time with Julie and drops out of the theater program. She consoles Danny one day when he tearfully expresses his fear of

coming out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

, and they become friends again. At a house party, Christine and Kyle kiss, and they both confess that they are virgins. After they have sex for the first time, Kyle reveals that he is not actually a virgin, upsetting Christine and prompting her to seek comfort from her mother. After Christine is suspended from school for speaking up at an

anti-abortion Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respons ...

assembly, Jenna tries to visit her, consequently discovering that Christine had claimed Danny's grandmother's house as her own to impress her. Jenna agrees to forgive her for the lie because of their mutual friendship with Kyle, although their friendship becomes strained. Christine learns that her father, Larry, has been out of a job and battling depression for years. Despite Marion's insistence that their family cannot afford the fees, Christine secretly applies to East Coast colleges with her father's help. She is accepted into UC Davis but feels it is too close to home. She later learns she is on the wait list for a university in New York City but does not share the news with Marion. Christine sets out for the prom with Kyle, Jenna, and Jenna's boyfriend, but the latter three decide to go to a house party instead. Christine initially agrees, but then asks them to drop her off at Julie's, where the two rekindle their friendship and go to prom together. After graduation, Danny accidentally mentions the wait list in front of Marion, who stops speaking to Christine for the rest of the summer. Christine gets accepted to the university and her parents take her to the airport, but Marion refuses to go inside to say goodbye. Marion begins crying while leaving the airport and drives back, only to discover that Christine has already gone through security. She cries in Larry's arms, who consoles her. After arriving in New York, Christine finds several letters addressed to her in her luggage. The letters were written and initially discarded by her mother, but secretly collected and passed along by her father. She begins using her given name again and is hospitalized after drinking heavily at a party. Leaving the hospital, she visits a Presbyterian church service and is moved to tears. She calls home and leaves an apologetic voicemail for her mother, thanking her for everything she has done for her.

Cast

Production

Development

Gerwig spent years writing the screenplay. At one point it was over 350 pages long, and had the working title ''Mothers and Daughters''. In 2015, Gerwig and her team secured financing from IAC Films, who produced the film alongside Scott Rudin Productions. Gerwig's manager, Evelyn O'Neill, also served as a producer. Although the film has been described as "

semi-autobiographical An autobiographical novel is a form of novel using autofiction techniques, or the merging of autobiographical and fictive elements. The literary technique is distinguished from an autobiography or memoir by the stipulation of being fiction. Bec ...

", Gerwig has said that "nothing in the movie literally happened in my life, but it has a core of truth that resonates with what I know". To prepare the cast and crew, Gerwig gave them her old high-school yearbooks, photos, and journals, as well as passages written by Joan Didion, and took them on a tour of her hometown. She told Sam Levy, director of photography on the film, that she wanted it to feel "like a memory," and said that she "sought to offer a female counterpart to tales like '' The 400 Blows'' and '' Boyhood.''" The film was Gerwig's first as a solo director; in 2008, she had co-written and co-directed ''

Nights and Weekends ''Nights and Weekends'' is a 2008 American mumblecore film co-directed, co-written, co-produced by and co-starring Joe Swanberg and Greta Gerwig. The film follows a long-distance relationship and its aftermath. It premiered at South by Southwest ...

'' with Joe Swanberg.

Casting

In September 2015, Gerwig met with Saoirse Ronan at the Toronto International Film Festival, where they were promoting '' Maggie's Plan'' and '' Brooklyn'' respectively. They read through the script in a hotel room, with Ronan reading the part of Lady Bird, and Gerwig reading the other characters. Gerwig realized by the second page that Ronan was the right choice for the title role. In January 2016, Ronan was cast. Gerwig met with Lucas Hedges and offered him his choice of the male parts. He chose Danny. Gerwig cast Laurie Metcalf after watching her theater work; the rest of the cast—including

, Timothée Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein,

John Karna John Timothy Karna (born November 18, 1992) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Noah Foster in the first two seasons of the MTV slasher television series ''Scream'', based on the film series of the same name. He is also known fo ...

and Jordan Rodrigues—was announced in September 2016.

Filming

Principal photography was scheduled to begin in March 2016, but was delayed to August due to Ronan's commitments to a performance of Arthur Miller's '' The Crucible''. Filming began on August 30, 2016, in Sacramento, California for one week. Five weeks were spent on location in Los Angeles, with additional shooting in New York City and filming wrapped on October 1, 2016. Gerwig had wanted to shoot the film on

Super 16 film 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, educ ...

, but due to budget constraints she ultimately shot on the Arri Alexa Mini. In

post-production Post-production is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording individual program segments. The ...

, the filmmakers emphasized digital noise to create the effect of a copy of a photograph. Ronan dyed her hair red for the role, and did not wear makeup to cover her acne; she has said she saw the film as "a really good opportunity to let a teenager's face in a movie actually look like a teenager's face in real life". Gerwig, using a technique she learned from filmmaker Rebecca Miller, arrived an hour before everyone else to put the cast and crew at ease by knowing exactly how the day would run. She also banned cellphones on the set, a policy borrowed from her partner, filmmaker Noah Baumbach.

Release

In July 2017, A24 acquired worldwide distribution rights to the film. The film had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on September 1, 2017, and screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2017, and at the New York Film Festival on October 8, 2017.

Focus Features Focus Features LLC is an American film production and distribution company, owned by Comcast as part of Universal Pictures, a division of its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal. Focus Features distributes independent and foreign films in th ...

acquired international distribution rights to the film. It was released theatrically in the United States on November 3, 2017, in the United Kingdom on February 16, 2018, and in Ireland on February 23, 2018.

Reception

Box office

''Lady Bird'' grossed $49 million in the United States and Canada, and $30 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $79 million. In its limited opening weekend, it grossed $364,437 from four theaters, for a per-theater average of $91,109. It had the second best theater average of 2017, and the highest ever for a film in limited release directed by a woman. The film expanded to 37 theaters in its second weekend, and grossed a three-day total of $1.2 million, finishing tenth at the box office. In its third weekend, the film expanded to 238 theaters, and grossed a three-day total of $2.5 million, finishing eighth at the box office. The film had its official wide release on November 24, playing in 724 theaters and making $4.1 million over the weekend ($5.4 million over the five-day Thanksgiving frame), finishing eleventh. Expanding to 1,194 theaters the following week the film grossed $4.3 million, returning to eighth place. ''Lady Bird'' also became A24's highest-grossing film domestically, ahead of ''

Moonlight Moonlight consists of mostly sunlight (with little earthlight) reflected from the parts of the Moon's surface where the Sun's light strikes. Illumination The intensity of moonlight varies greatly depending on the lunar phase, but even the ful ...

'', which made $27.9 million. The weekend of January 27, 2018, following the announcement of the film's five Oscar nominations, it made $1.9 million (an increase over the previous week's $1.1 million).

Critical response

''Lady Bird'' received a standing ovation at its international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and was praised for Ronan and Metcalf's performances, and Gerwig's direction. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 99% based on 399 reviews, with an average rating of 8.80/10. The website's critical consensus reads "''Lady Bird'' delivers fresh insights about the turmoil of adolescence and reveals debuting writer-director Greta Gerwig as a fully formed filmmaking talent." On November 27, 2017, it became the most-reviewed film ever to remain at 100% on the site with 164 positive reviews, beating previous record holder '' Toy Story 2'', which had 163 positive reviews at the time. It stayed at 100% until its 196th review was negative. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 93 out of 100, based on reviews from 50 critics, indicating "universal acclaim."

A.O. Scott Anthony Oliver Scott (born July 10, 1966) is an American journalist and cultural critic. He has been chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' since 2004, a title he shares with Manohla Dargis. Early life Scott was born on July 10, 1966 in ...

of '' The New York Times'' described ''Lady Bird'' as "big-screen perfection ... exceptionally well-written, full of wordplay and lively argument. Every line sounds like something a person might actually say, which means that the movie is also exceptionally well acted." Todd McCarthy of '' The Hollywood Reporter'' wrote the film was "modestly scaled but creatively ambitious" and "succeeds on its own terms as a piquant audience pleaser", and gave praise to Ronan, who he said "just seems to keep getting better all the time." Peter Debruge of '' Variety'' praised Gerwig's direction and script as well as Ronan's performance. Mick LaSalle of the '' San Francisco Chronicle'' wrote the film was "simply beautiful" and "warm and inspired", hailing the performances of Ronan and Metcalf as well as Gerwig's direction and screenplay. '' The Washington Post''s Ann Hornaday described the film as a "triumph of style, sensibility and spirit" while similarly praising Ronan's performance and Gerwig's direction. Peter Travers of '' Rolling Stone'' rated the film 3.5 out of four stars in which he deemed it as "simply irresistible" and complimented the film's plot and narrative while highlighting the performances of Ronan and Metcalf in which he stated as an " Oscar calling" and Gerwig's direction as "full-blown triumph". He also declared it as one of the year's best films. Richard Roeper of the '' Chicago Sun-Times'' called the film "unique and original and fresh and wonderful" and "appealing" while lauding the performances (particularly Metcalf and Letts) in which he remarked that "There’s no level of acting on a higher plane than what etcalfand ettsachieve in this film. This is what greatness looks like." Alonso Duralde of '' TheWrap'' remarked that "Gerwig the actress skillfully pivots between the wacky and the poignant, so it's no surprise that Gerwig the auteur so delicately balances hilarity and heartbreak". In ''Paste'', Jim Vorel argued that the film portrays an abusive maternal relationship and noted the similarities of Marion's behavior to those with

borderline personality disorder Borderline personality disorder (BPD), also known as emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD), is a personality disorder characterized by a long-term pattern of unstable interpersonal relationships, distorted sense of self, and strong ...

Accolades

''Lady Bird'' garnered a variety of awards and nominations. The film was chosen by the National Board of Review, the

, and ''Time'' magazine as one of the top 10 films of 2017. In 2018, ''Lady Bird'' was awarded The ReFrame Stamp in the 2017 Narrative & Animated Feature category. At the 90th Academy Awards, it was nominated for Best Picture,

and Best Original Screenplay for Gerwig, Best Actress for Ronan, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Metcalf. It did not win in any of the five categories in which it was nominated. The film also received eight nominations at the

23rd Critics' Choice Awards The 23rd Critics' Choice Awards were presented on January 11, 2018 at the Barker Hangar at the Santa Monica Airport, honoring the finest achievements of filmmaking and television programming in 2017. The ceremony was broadcast on The CW and hosted ...

, including Best Picture,

, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Acting Ensemble. At the 75th Golden Globe Awards, it was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy (won), Best Actress – Musical or Comedy for Ronan (won), Best Supporting Actress for Metcalf, and

Best Screenplay Best or The Best may refer to: People * Best (surname), people with the surname Best * Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer Companies and organizations * Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain * Best Lock Corporatio ...

. At the

24th Screen Actors Guild Awards The 24th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, honoring the best achievements in film and television performances for the year 2017, were presented on January 21, 2018 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was broadcast on ...

, it was nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for Ronan, Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role for Metcalf, and Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. In a series of articles regarding the best of the

2010s in film Highest-grossing films The list has more 2019 films in the top 50 than any other year, with nine in total. It is then followed by 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 with six; 2012 with five; 2013 with four; 2010 and 2011 with three; and 2014 with two. ...

, IndieWire ranked ''Lady Bird'' as the 10th best film of the decade. '' Rolling Stone'' ranked it 23rd, '' The A.V. Club'' ranked it 10th, '' Business Insider'' ranked it 5th, and '' Consequence of Sound'' ranked it 90th. It was the 13th most overall mentioned on best of decade lists tying with '' Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse'' according to Metacritic. In 2018, IndieWire writers ranked the script the eighth best American screenplay of the 21st century.

Potential sequels

In February 2018, on an episode of ''The A24 Podcast'', Gerwig expressed interest in making

spiritual successor A spiritual successor (sometimes called a spiritual sequel) is a product or fictional work that is similar to, or directly inspired by, another previous work, but (unlike a traditional prequel or sequel) does not explicitly continue the product lin ...

s to ''Lady Bird'', saying "I would like to do a quartet of Sacramento films" modeled on the Neapolitan Novels of Elena Ferrante.

Notes

References

External links

* * * * * *
Official screenplay
{{Navboxes , title = Awards for ''Lady Bird'' , list = {{Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Film {{Golden Globe Award Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy {{Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best Picture {{National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Film {{New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Film {{Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Film 2017 films 2017 comedy-drama films 2017 directorial debut films 2017 independent films 2017 LGBT-related films 2010s coming-of-age comedy-drama films 2010s feminist films 2010s high school films 2010s teen comedy-drama films A24 (company) films American coming-of-age comedy-drama films American feminist comedy films American high school films American teen comedy-drama films American teen LGBT-related films Best Musical or Comedy Picture Golden Globe winners Films about parenting Films directed by Greta Gerwig Films featuring a Best Musical or Comedy Actress Golden Globe winning performance Films produced by Scott Rudin Films scored by Jon Brion Films set in 2002 Films set in 2003 Films set in Sacramento, California Films set in New York City Films shot in Los Angeles Films shot in New York City Films shot in Sacramento, California Films with screenplays by Greta Gerwig Gay-related films Focus Features films LGBT-related comedy-drama films LGBT-related coming-of-age films Films about mother–daughter relationships National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Film winners American female buddy films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films