Mackenzie's Movie: Lady Bird

If you still haven’t seen Lady Bird here’s my pro tip: don't watch it the week before you leave for college for the first time.

Lady Bird is one of those movies that is so profoundly personal that you can’t help but see yourself as Lady Bird or Julie or even Danny. The first time I saw the movie I cried, and again every single time I’ve watched the movie since. Every character was someone I’ve known at one point in my life, but especially Lady Bird and Julie. The desire to find a space for themselves where they feel like they belong, the yearning to leave home (ESPECIALLY Lady Bird’s desire to live on the East Coast), and the power of Alanis Morissette. It’s rare to watch a movie that feels so intimate and so unbelievably real, and it’s especially rare to see this with teenagers. The realness in Greta Gerwig’s writing makes you feel a sense of nostalgia for something you’ve never experienced while still understanding exactly how they feel.

Often times characters like Lady Bird are not given the opportunity to become full-fleshed characters and are instead relegated to being yet another “manic pixie dream girl.” This opportunity would not have been allowed to Lady Bird had the film been written by a man. While there are strong female characters written by men, none are as complex as Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson. The way that Saoirse Ronan plays Christine, or as Julie would say “the titular role,” is masterful and captures the essence of what it is like to be a teenager who knows everything and nothing all at once. The moment that always sticks out to me is when Lady Bird asks her mom: “what if this is the best version of me?” and her mom, played by the incomparable Laurie Metcalf, just shrugs as if to say “it can’t be, can it?”. Seeing a character seemingly as strong as Lady Bird admit that she is unsure if even the real version of herself is good enough, let alone the facade she puts on around the “cool kids,” is powerful in its own right.

This movie is full of moving scenes, but the one that resonated with me the most doesn't come from Lady Bird at all, but rather her best friend, Julie. When Lady Bird comes to Julie’s apartment on prom night she finds Julie crying, and as Lady Bird tries to comfort her she says: “some people just aren't built happy, you know.” Having had, and still having, my own battles with depression and anxiety, hearing this brought tears to my eyes (and then streaming down my face). It’s a thought that runs through my mind every time I have a panic attack, the thought of “why me?” Julie is just as powerful a character as Lady Bird and the fact that they have each other to rely on is so incredibly important. Lady Bird is a story about friendship, about self-discovery, and, most importantly, about women and everything that comes with being a woman.