In the fall of 2002, Christine McPherson, who calls herself "Lady Bird", is a senior at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic High School[a] in Sacramento, California. Despite her family's financial struggles, she longs to attend a prestigious college in "a city with culture" somewhere on the East Coast.
During a car ride, Christine's mother Marion tells her she is ungrateful and her dreams are impossible. Christine self-destructively responds by jumping from the moving car, breaking her arm. Over the course of the film, Marion and Christine repeatedly connect, only for things to fall apart when one of the two equally strong-willed women makes a cutting remark. Christine is tormented by the fact that while her mother loves her, she does not like her.
Christine and her best friend Julie join their school's theater program. Although Christine is disappointed by her small parts and resents Julie's comparative talent, she meets her new boyfriend Danny through the program, which is shared with the adjacent all-male brother school. She spends her last Thanksgiving before graduation with Danny's wealthy family instead of her own, much to Marion's disappointment. Christine breaks up with Danny after catching 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 brother school. She tries to become more popular by bonding with Kyle and Jenna, another popular student. Christine bonds with Jenna by vandalizing a nun's car together and exaggerating her family's wealth. She reconciles with Danny after he tearfully expresses his fear of coming out, but leaves the theater program and spends less time with Julie.
Christine's new relationships begin to fall apart. After she is suspended from school for heckling a guest speaker at an anti-abortionassembly, Jenna tries to visit her and learns that Christine gave her a fake address in an affluent neighborhood. Christine kisses Kyle at a party, and they confess to each other that they are both virgins. However, when they have (underwhelming) sex for the first time, Kyle admits he was lying. Deeply wounded, Christine seeks comfort from her mother, who provides it without asking why.
Marion begs Christine to focus on California colleges, revealing that her father Larry cannot afford out-of-state tuition: he has lost his job and has been battling depression for years. Christine's college counselor points out that her application essay shows a great deal of love for Sacramento. Christine dismisses this as mere attention to detail, but her counselor suggests that love and attention are the same thing. Regardless, Larry helps Christine apply to her dream East Coast colleges in secret, promising to find a way to make the money work. When admissions decisions are released, Christine is dismayed to hear that her presumptive destination is UC Davis, just 20 minutes away. She is waitlisted for a university in New York City, but does not tell Marion.
Christine sets out for the prom with Kyle, Jenna, and Jenna's boyfriend, but her companions decide to go to a house party instead. Christine initially agrees to go with them, but reconsiders and asks them to drop her off at Julie's, where they rekindle their friendship and go to prom together.
Danny accidentally mentions the waitlist in front of Marion, who stops speaking to Christine for the rest of the summer. She gets accepted to the university and her parents take her to the airport, where Marion refuses to go inside to say goodbye. Changing her mind, she returns only to discover that Christine has already gone through security. She breaks down crying in Larry's arms.
After arriving in New York, Christine finds several heartfelt, unfinished letters from her mother in her luggage. Her mother threw all of them away, but her father secretly collected them for Christine. Christine realizes that even if her mother does not like her, the important thing is that she loves her. She begins using her given name again.
Christine is hospitalized after drinking heavily at a college party. Leaving the hospital, Christine visits a Presbyterian church service and is moved to tears. She calls home and leaves an apologetic message for Marion, thanking her for all her help.
Gerwig spent years writing the screenplay for "Lady Bird". At one point, it was over 350 pages long and had the working titleMothers and Daughters.[9] In 2015, Gerwig and her team secured financing from IAC Films, who produced the film alongside Scott Rudin Productions.[10] Gerwig's manager, Evelyn O'Neill, also served as a producer.[10]
Although the film has been described as "semi-autobiographical",[11] 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".[9] 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 she took them on a tour of her hometown.[12][13] She told Sam Levy, the director of photography on the film, that she wanted it to feel "like a memory,"[14] and said that she "sought to offer a female counterpart to tales like The 400 Blows and Boyhood."[11] The film was Gerwig's first as a solo director, though she had previously co-written and co-directed Nights and Weekends with Joe Swanberg in 2008.[15]
Principal photography was scheduled to begin in March 2016, but was delayed to August because of Ronan's commitments to a Broadway production of The Crucible.[24] Filming began in Sacramento, California on August 30, 2016, for one week. Five weeks were spent on location in Los Angeles,[10] with additional shooting in New York City, and filming wrapped on October 1, 2016.[25] Originally, Gerwig wanted to shoot the film on Super 16 film, but due to budget constraints, she ultimately shot on the Arri Alexa Mini. In post-production, the filmmakers emphasized digital noise, to create the effect of a copy of a photograph.[26]
Ronan dyed her hair red for the role and did not wear makeup to cover her acne, viewing the film as "an opportunity to let a teenager's face in a movie actually look like a teenager's face in real life".[27] To put the cast and crew at ease by knowing exactly how the day would run, Gerwig, using a technique she learned from filmmaker Rebecca Miller, arrived an hour before everyone else. She also banned cell phones on the set, which was a policy she borrowed from her partner, filmmaker Noah Baumbach.[28]
In July 2017, A24 acquired worldwide distribution rights to the film.[29] The film had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on September 1, 2017,[30] and screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2017,[31] and at the New York Film Festival on October 8, 2017.[32]Focus Features acquired international distribution rights to the film.[33] It was released theatrically in the United States on November 3, 2017,[34] in the United Kingdom on February 16, 2018, and in Ireland on February 23, 2018.[35]
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.[4]
In its limited opening weekend, it grossed $364,437 from four theaters, for a per-theater average of $91,109.[36] It had the second best theater average of 2017, and the highest ever for a film in limited release directed by a woman.[37] 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.[38] 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.[39]
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.[40] Expanding to 1,194 theaters the following week the film grossed $4.3 million, returning to eighth place.[41]Lady Bird also became A24's highest-grossing film domestically, ahead of Moonlight, which made $27.9 million.[42] 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).[43]
Critical response
Lady Bird received a standing ovation at its international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival,[44] and was praised for Ronan and Metcalf's performances, and Gerwig's direction.[45][46] On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 99% based on 400 reviews, with an average rating of 8.8/10. 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."[47] On November 27, 2017, it became the film with the most professional reviews 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.[48] It stayed at 100% until a negative review by Cole Smithey was published;[49] Smithey, who had previously done the same for Toy Story 3's record 100% score,[50] later admitted he intentionally designed his review to lower its score.[51] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 93 out of 100, based on reviews from 50 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[52]
A. O. Scott 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."[53]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."[54] Peter Debruge of Variety praised Gerwig's direction and script as well as Ronan's performance.[46]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.[55]
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.[56]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.[57]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 [Metcalf] and [Letts] achieve in this film. This is what greatness looks like."[58]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".[59]
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.[60]
In February 2018, on an episode of The A24 Podcast, Gerwig expressed interest in making spiritual successors to Lady Bird, saying "I would like to do a quartet of Sacramento films" modeled on the Neapolitan Novels of Elena Ferrante.[70]
^Christine attends an all-girls Catholic school which has an adjoining Catholic boys' high school, with which the students participate in co-educational activities.
^Hans, Simran (February 18, 2018). "Lady Bird review – a magical portrait of adolescence". The Guardian. Archived from the original on February 21, 2018. Retrieved February 21, 2018. Lady Bird has been described as Greta Gerwig's directorial debut. Yet, with ... a co-director credit on Joe Swanberg's 2008 mumblecore drama Nights and Weekends, it's not as though she is new to making movies.
