"Lady Bird" (2017) Directed by Greta Gerwig, a breakout film that has earned 15 awards including two Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture musical or comedy and Best Actress Saoirse Ronan. The film best demonstrates a young 17-year-old woman in Sacramento, CA, that attends a private Catholic high school. Just like any ordinary high school girl, Lady Bird experiences relatable situations that some teenage girls may have encountered. Throughout the struggles of high school and plans for college, Lady Bird faces her challenges and later learns her true identity and lessons from her experiences and is ready to conquer the real world.
The film illustrates love, friendships, school, peer pressure, life decisions, and dreams. All things many young women may encounter towards the end of their high school career and beginning of their college life.
Here are 10 reasons why every young woman should watch "Lady Bird."
1. Amazing Cast
Saoirse Ronan has been seen in films like "The Lovely Bones" (2009) and "Brooklyn" (2015) but her best performance thus far has been her role in the 2017 film "Lady Bird." A role as the protagonist who is a young 17-year-old woman, who attends a strict private Catholic high school in Sacramento, CA.
Just like some young woman, her characteristics involve curiosity, insecurity, being dramatic, rebellious, opinionated, sensitive and individuality. Ronan portrays a relatable high school student and has proved her status as a must-see actress with an Oscar nom and a Golden Globe.
Lady Bird is one of Ronan's best films.
Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet has made his name quite known in the film industry with his role in the Oscar-nominated film "Call Me By Your Name" (2017), directed by Luca Guadagnino.
Chalamet has also been featured in the film "Lady Bird" (2017) as a love interest for the main character Lady Bird. Chalamet is portrayed as a typical rebellious high school teen who is known as one of the "popular" guys on campus. Stealing girls' hearts and breaking them one by one, he's quite the player in the film.
Chalamet is an Oscar nominee and his breakout roles have definitely created a pathway to more success in the near future as a rising A-list actor.
2. That unexplainable relationship with your mom
Lady's Birds relationship with her mother, Marion is not the usual mother-daughter "lovey-dovey" type. Lady Bird's wild ways have caused tension in the bond she has with her mother. Lady Bird has big aspirations that her mother does not find realistic and wants her daughter to see the reality of life.
Both characters have strong personalities and make it hard for them to agree on many levels. Causing a distance in the relationship and the misunderstanding that mothers don't get about their daughters.
Even though, Lady Bird and her mother may have many disagreements they are always there for each other through thick and thin.
Maturing from a teenage girl into a young woman is a difficult transition. Not only for young women but also for the women who are raising us. We forget that our moms were once our age and have experienced a lot. Even though we may feel they may not understand us, we should take the time to listen to them and take their advice. They just want us to avoid the same mistakes they might have made and want us to reach our full potential.
3. Young Love
Lady Bird experiences her first love with boyfriend, Danny, who she meets while performing a school play together. They shared Holidays, school events, and late night weekends full of mischief. To later find out that Danny has a hidden secret, that breaks her heart.
Some may find high school relationships worth wild or just a waste a time. Many girls daydream about finding the perfect person and experiencing the best time of their lives with their partner. But like most young relationships, they end and cause plenty of tears and heartbreak. Feeling as if, where did things go wrong? We were just fine, now it's over. Just like life itself, it moves on and so does Lady Bird.
4. Friendships
We all have that friend that we share every crazy moment of our lives with. These special people are who we have great bonds with and they even know us a little better than we know ourselves at times. Lady Bird and her best friend, Julie, share the same interest when it comes to gossip, the drama club, and boys. Julie is the first person Lady Bird runs to for everything when it comes to either a rough day at home or exciting news of a new love interest.
Friends are the people who we share most our free time with. We can act absolutely ridiculous and our friends will still love us for who we are, from screaming lyrics to a song out loud in a car to crying about a stressful time in our lives to gushing about how hot Leonardo DiCaprio is and how cute our outfits look. True friends are not easily found, but when they are we look forward to each time we spend with them.
5. Dramatic Teenage Ways
With constant mood swings, hormones are at their craziest around the teenage years. Lady Bird is seen throughout the film stomping, screaming and throwing things. Her tantrums are outrageous, but she could care less how it affects others on her behavior. She's tired of how others treat her and just wants to be showed respect and treated like an adult for once.
And Lady Bird's reactions are relatable. She can be seen switching from jumping for joy after her night with her crush to crying hysterically in the car with Julie when she breaks up with Danny. Her arguments are loud and vulgar in her household when it comes to fighting with her mom or her brother.
In other words, girls are nice for the most part until they are messed with then the attitude completely changes into something worth not seeing.
6. Aspirations and Endless Dreams
From a young age, we are told to dream big. However, when we are approaching the age of adulthood, our parents are quick to tell us to become realistic and they come across as unsupportive.
Lady Bird's parents want her to attend community college in Sacramento, but Lady Bird has an aspiration to move to the East Coast and live her life in the "big apple" of New York City. Where she explains that New York is full of culture, unlike the outskirts of Sacramento.
There is nothing wrong with dreaming big. What makes dreams worth wild is when you work your hardest to reach your goals. You can sit around all day and still dream but if there are no actions furthering your pathway to your goals than nothing gets down.
The film portrays a dream worth living for Lady Bird and she takes her chances to apply for a school in New York and then finds that she is very close to making her dreams a reality.
7. Learning to Forgive Others
One day, during work at the coffee shop, Lady Bird is visited by her ex-boyfriend, Danny. Who comes to apologize to Lady Bird for all the hurt he has caused her. At first Lady Bird wants to remain mad and ignores him. Danny follows her to the back of the shop and deeply explains his own pain of what he did and his personal challenges to Lady Bird. Where she forgives him and has sympathy for Danny's personal struggles.
Whether it be an ex-partner, friend, or someone close to you that did you wrong your first instinct is to remove them from your life. People should not feel entitled to take advantage or disrespect you at any cost.
However, one part of maturing into an adult is hearing people out for taking responsibility in their actions and apologizing. Our hearts should not be filled with hate but with forgiveness. Certain actions should not be forgotten, but having forgiveness makes amends for people and brings closure to stressful situations.
8. Friends Come and Go
In the film, Lady Bird is pressured to fit in with the crowd, resulting in Lady Bird pushing away her friendship with Julie. She tries desperately to be accepted by others and does things that she later regrets doing to be accepted by people who aren't worth her time. Towards the end of the film, she realizes the friendship she has with Julie is more important than the "cool" kids she has made friends with.
We often try to be accepted by others and do things to search for that acceptance. When in reality other people who cannot accept you for who you are are not even worth your time. It is important to value the few friends you do have.
People come and go, and its okay to outgrow others because some friends are only meant to be in your life for a limited of time. Instead of reminiscing, just be grateful for the time but remember to keep your true friends close. You don't find a best friend every day.
9. Feeling like Nothing is Ever Enough
With an unemployed father, a hard-working mother and shattered dreams, Lady Bird is left to feel incomplete. She blames her family for not trying to help her succeed in life. As much as they want to, they financially can't. Lady Bird fails to see the sacrifices her parents make for her and wishes she lived like her peers in a beautiful big house driving a range rover.
It's selfish to not admit that we want more in life, mostly materialistic things. It is common for young women to have experienced being ungrateful and unrecognizable to their parents' sacrifices. But with age, we realize that our parents do work hard to give us everything.
10. Finding Yourself
Everything has gone wrong for Lady Bird. She was on the verge of losing her best friend, going through both a bad breakup and being played by a guy, and she's been facing her mother's constant put-downs. Lady Bird is at her final breaking point. As the end of her senior year in high school approaches, she is put in a situation that re-evaluates her life decisions.
Transitioning into adulthood may be strange and confusing. Through the ups and downs and many weird hairstyles phases, we will later find our true identity. The film not only shows various scenes of typical teen struggles but how Lady Bird takes her experiences and makes them life lessons. It's really easy to question yourself. "Why me?"
When you're going through a lot but hardship only develops a form of growth and positivity in life. Everything happens for a reason. We just don't know right away what that reason is.
Lady Bird is one of 2017's best pictures and has captured the hearts of many. Greta Gerwig is an amazing talent who wrote and directed the film demonstrating the everyday life struggles of a teenage girl developing into a young woman.
This is a film that portrays actual possible events and how the world is seen from the perspective of young women.
And I highly recommend it.
Heres a trailer to "Lady Bird" (2017)
