Film Review: "Lady Bird" (2017).

"Time to Fly" in Lady Bird. This independent comedy-drama film written and directed by Greta Gerwig, in her directorial debut. The film centres on Christine Lady Bird McPherson, a teenage girl who faces a lot of ups and downs in her relationships during her senior year in high school.

Gerwig spent years writing the screenplay, and completed it by the end of 2013, under the working title of Mothers and Daughters. According to Gerwig, the first draft of her script was 350 pages long, which would equate to a movie nearly six hours long. Gerwig then showed the script to her partner, Noah Baumbach, he asked if he could help her finish writing it, and offered to direct it. Gerwig refused. She thought about it for two weeks and then declined, having decided to direct it herself. Although the film has been described as "semi-autobiographical", 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". Gerwig has said that she herself was the polar opposite of her title character when she was growing up. She was strait-laced and not at all rebellious. Though Gerwig drew on her experience in attending Catholic school in Sacramento in writing Ronan's character. Gerwig wanted to avoid making a contemporary movie, as she didn't feel confident to tell a story revolving around teenagers who are obsessed with their smart phones. Gerwig received the greenlight, after an eleven-hour deliberation with Scott Rudin and his producing partner Eli Bush. In September 2015, Gerwig met with Saoirse Ronan at the Toronto International Film Festival, where they were promoting Maggie's Plan and Brooklyn. Gerwig met with Ronan at Ronan's hotel room and they ran through the script. Gerwig realized by the second page that Ronan was the right choice for the lead. In January 2016, Ronan was cast. Ronan drew on her memories of watching Saved by the Bell for the role. By late August, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts, Lucas Hedges, Timothée Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and Lois Smith rounded out the cast. To prepare the cast and crew, Gerwig gave them her old high-school yearbooks, photos, and journals, Joan Didion passages, and took them on a tour of her hometown. At the same time, principal photography commenced, and took place in Los Angeles, Pasadena, Sacramento, Sierra Madre, and Van Nuys, California, as well as New York City. Gerwig told cinematographer Sam Levy that she wanted it to feel "like a memory." Gerwig wanted to shoot the movie on Super 16 film stock, but due to budget constraints ultimately shot on digital with the Arri Alexa Mini. The final film emphasizes digital noise to create the effect of a Xeroxed copy of a photograph.

The extraordinary central performance from Ronan, as well as the strong performance supporting her, helps to add a blisteringly authenticity to the film.

Epic in technical scale but breathlessly intimate in narrative scope, Lady Bird is an insightful investigation of the teenage condition.

Simon says Lady Bird receives: