RT does a pretty good job predicting how much I will like/appreciate a movie. Very rarely do I see a movie rated above 80% that I end up scratching my head in confusion as to why it was well received by others. Likewise, I rarely enjoy movies that get below 30% on RT. And if I do, it’s because I have some childhood attachment to a series or character and my enjoyment was not based on an unbiased assessment of the plot/direction/acting. With that said, I do think a “B-“ review is positive, and to state that the expectation of an “A” based on the RT perfect score is why a “rotten” tag was placed on the review is malevolent. There’s an ego issue when you feel the need to end a streak to get a minor point across.
I loved this movie and its characters. Understated character dramas are probably my favorite lol. The way I look at it, Lady Bird doesn't experience her revelation because she enters the church--she experiences her revelation after experimenting with her new identity, blacks-out (almost like an act of purging the negative energy from her past), and reentering a familiar environment that had provided her solace most her life. I'm still piecing together the little elements of the film, like her mother's letters and her struggle to express herself lovingly, how that parallels with Lady Bird's feelings toward her hometown, the attention=love line, and how the theater teacher's story fits into everything.
I loved this, maybe my favorite of the year The attention = love stuff really hit home like just now catching up on this thread. Ladybird hurt her mother mostly in the ways she wasn't paying attention to her actions, the little things that could only be seen as insults with a specific context, these are seen as Ladybird withholding love and insulting her parents that can't give her everything. Her mother's love was real, but Ladybird couldn't handle the attention most of the time, and all her friendships outside of her best friend were empty, they didn't know anything about her, just what she presented. Fuck, she didn't even really love that first boyfriend until he revealed his secret and she accepted him, that was her finally paying attention to who he is. What a powerful scene. Should I spoil this?
About to watch this for a second time. Been thinking about certain scenes in this since I saw it a couple weeks ago, figured I'd duck out of the Star Wars hype for a bit and see this in what I'm expecting to be an empty theatre
Just watched this. Loved every second of it and every character, except Kyle, he was pretty lame. Teared up a few times. God I am glad I watched this tonight.
also just saw it tonight, pretty much everything I was hoping for and then some. hilarious, heartfelt, surprisingly accessible. She was so incredible in the way she embodied all the quirks while still feeling genuine and unironic. also disagree with the crit that the relationship with her mom was under-explored, the entire film literally hinged on it/started and ended with it. They accentuated her growth and avoided lazy redemptive maternal plot lines while still acknowledging how key it was for her development. Felt like Baumbach making Edge of Seventeen which is some of the highest praise I could give considering my affinity for both
Glad we got the racial thinkpiece about it out of the way 3 months before the Oscars. earlier than i was expecting.
It is like Boyhood all over again. This is why it is always sad when good movies get noticed by the Academy Awards.
Not a big fan of that article. I don’t know if I agree with those points. Just because a film isn’t showcasing the struggles of minorities at its forefront doesn’t mean it’s entirely prejudiced against them. This is a self-aware story about a white girl growing up in the early 2000’s- maybe it’s the wrong mindset, but just because Lady Bird and her mother are white doesn’t delegitimize the themes explored in the film.
Think it's weird that the article kinda hinges on the idea that the movie makes Miguel and Shelley background characters to anonymously fill out scenes, but then only refers to Shelley as "the girlfriend".
As often happens, a white film is getting lauded in a landscape of almost exclusively other white films getting lauded, and that attention absolutely invites critique. Much of it fair. But I disagree with a lot of the writer’s argument. Like Kenneth Lonergan’s Margaret, this is a movie about a white girl that extends as much empathy and nuance to the world and people around her as it does to her, it’s just that the white girl is the protagonist. As much as I love Stephen Henderson’s drama teacher and Miguel and the other supporting characters, the portraits of them we get from Lady Bird’s limited perspective almost make them more memorable, affecting, and poignant. Henderson’s performance is one of my favorites of the year, and the way his character’s scenes are edited and structured, I’m asking more questions and thinking about him far more than if the film went into explicit detail about his life. That doesn’t mean the movie is perfect, but I like thinking harder about something and having questions far more than having everything hand delivered to me. I also think it’s just a flat out incorrect criticism to say that Lady Bird doesn’t change from instance to instance, and remains the same person at the end of the film. We as an audience realize how much everything she experienced remains a part of her going forward, consciously and unconsciously, her returning to a familiar scene from her hometown life in New York showing how important her upbringing and all the aspects of it were to her. That said, yes, we’ve seen a lot of white stories like this. The landscape is always in need of more stories and different stories, of protagonists who are living non-white, non-male experiences. I understand frustration with a climate that continuously rewards seemingly the same white stories over and over again, even if I think Lady Bird is a much stronger film than she does.
thought the drama teacher's arc/story was one that in 90% of other movies in this genre just wouldn't be included at all. idk. maybe it's something i need to examine within myself, but i thought the movie did a much better job with handling race then most other white coming of age movies in this vein
Like most of us on this website I’m extremely receptive to criticisms of this kind but that article is pretty off the mark
the article was a good read the more I think about this film, the less I understand its universal acclaim. imo the common thread of relatability is less whiteness and more high school, but it hinges almost entirely on the universal familiarity of high school and struggles to create moments/interactions that are affecting on a level deeper than just shared experience. this is kind of a weird comment
This was a really, really great movie. I found it very relatable, charming and incredibly well acted by everybody. Definitely my favourite of 2017.