Lady Bird (2017)

Lady Bird is one of the best reviewed movies of the year, with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomato's and A. O. Scott of the New York Times describing the film as "perfect". Written and directed by the actress and writer Greta Gerwig (a growing favorite of mine) and at lest partially inspired by her real life, Lady Bird stars Saoirse Ronan as Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson, and follows the senior girl over the course of the 2002-2003 academic year at a Sacramento area Catholic high school. The film is about relationships, between the self christened "Lady Bird" and her best friend Julie (Beanie Feldstein), her two successive boyfriends, nice guy Danny (Lucas Hedges) and the causally pompous Kyle (Timothee Chalamet), as well as her teachers, her brother, her father, but chiefly her Mom (Laurie Metcalf in a very strong understated performance). Lady Bird is going to be remembered as one of the great mother/daughter movies, with its complicated, strained, but ultimately loving central relationship. The film is witty, observant of human foibles, but kind about them. The characters are all quit human, and this film is generous to that humanity, whether it be in the form of a secretly sad priest, or a quietly grateful Goth girl. It is a film where you watch characters slowly change and grow and it feels enriching to do so. ****