Lady Bird

Actors: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts, Lucas Hedges, Timothée Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Lois Smith

Rating: 9 out of 10, One of the best movies I’ve seen this year. My daughter raved about it and claimed it reminded her a lot of her own teenage years with her mother. That’s the core of the story – the difficulty of a highly creative Californian teenage girl’s senior year in high school surrounded by drama on all sides, especially from her mother. My wife rightfully took exception to being compared to the emotionally callous mother in the movie – played with exquisite depth by Laurie Metcalf. The real message of this refreshing movie is the emotional byplay of the mother-daughter relationship when the younger one moves from child to woman. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it done better and that is a tribute to Metcalf but more so for Saoirse Ronan in the title role – she owns this movie. I truly believe she’s incapable of doing anything badly. This is a movie with heart as Lady Bird sails through her senior year beset by both family and social challenges but remains true. There are excellent subplots involving the value of friendship, home, and several aspects of teenage angst. This movie is squarely aimed at mothers and daughters but it was fascinating for an old dad to see and learn from as well.

MVP: Metcalf as the emotionally brutal but loving mother