Let us anticipate Greta Gerwig's directorial debut "Lady Bird"

http://www.trbimg.com/img-59ac295b/turbine/la-et-mn-greta-gerwig-lady-bird-telluride-20170903

On the evidence, she had more to do with Frances Ha and Mistress America than Baumbach. Many times it's sharp and in a few moments extraordinary. I can't say enough about Saoirse Ronan. A gallery of fine supporting work: Laurie Metcalf, Lois Smith, Timothée Chalamet, Lucas Hedges, Beanie Feldstein. Smart editing and use of elision.

The ending was too sentimental and movie-facile, though, but in my group I was in the majority.

nice, im in

yes, i'm eager to see it tho Frances Ha > Mistress America

Nothing would make me happier than for Laurie Metcalf to be great in this.

she is!

in my group I was in the majority.

minority obv

smart of Gerwig to pick a lead actress with charisma and acting chops, considering in Frances Ha she was missing both (not seen her in anything else, and no major desire to).

gerwig is great

greta

stupid phone

make greta gerwig again

Other big news in the top ten is found in tenth position where A24's Lady Bird delivered an incredible $1.25 million from just 37 theaters for an impressive $33,766 per theater average. A24 is reporting sell outs in many markets this weekend as the Greta Gerwig-directed feature will expand into top markets again this coming weekend leading into a nationwide break over Thanksgiving.

Sold out solidly in my town.

And, yes, solidly Team Metcalf.

yes, i'm eager to see it tho Frances Ha > Mistress America

^^^

I thought this was really charming and funny, with beautiful performances that amounted to a lot more than just a series of quirks. Laurie Metcalf was particularly great. I loved how the film made sure to define her as her own person, not just a hectoring mother to a teen she doesn't understand. As for Lady Bird herself, she's an obvious director surrogate in a very autobiographical story, but it's amazing how much more I can stand the typical Gerwig character when she's an actual teenager, not an emotionally-stunted adult.

I thought this was very sweet.

this has gotten even better in my mind since watching it

The depth of empathy for everyone on screen is worthy of comparisons to Renoir

This also very much reinforced my belief that friendships between women are the best thing to make movies about.

I know comparing with Renoir risk overselling it, but I calls 'em as I feels 'em.

waiting for you to label Call Me by Your Name Ivory-esque

Ang Lee-esque maybe

I haven't read much Oscar buzz about Ronan but, boy, does she deserve it.

Really? I've seen her on the bulk of lists.

Of course, I've also seen Emma Stone on most of those same lists.

haven't seen this yet but really want to. gerwig was on fresh air this morning, she's funny (in a weird funny way like half the people she plays; like, she wanted to be a competitive fencer and that's why she went to catholic high school, because they'd accommodate her travel schedule). does she have a flat, affectless manner when she speaks? yes but for some reason it's worked in everything I've seen her in.

also even though yes I haven't even seen the movie, they played one bit of dialogue from this and though there was nothing amazing about it, just listening to the delivery of it made me cry in the car.

Man, the part at the end where Terry asks her about Woody Allen (allegations) was pretty weird and awkward. She basically talks about how she refuses to talk about it because she doesn't want to say the wrong thing and have it affect her career, which is real, but in a way, this seems like the worst thing she could say?

No that’s not the worst thing she could say

Well yeah

o this was so great

this movie was so charming

The depth of empathy for everyone on screen is worthy of comparisons to Renoir

― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Tuesday, November 14, 2017 9:15 AM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

extremely down with this comparison

This movie was very sweet. It grew on me more and more as it went on.

Loved this so, so much. The matinee I saw was completely sold out. I loathed Frances Ha and Mistress America, just awful, so I went in somewhat skeptical, but was relieved that none of the whimsy or boring sensibility of Baumbach/Anderson/Allen rubbed off on Gerwig. She really delivered on "a female counterpoint to tales like The 400 Blows and Boyhood." No mixtape swapping, no scenes of teens sitting around a stereo talking about how cool this or that band is, not exaggeration of taste. Lady Bird liked Alanis Morisette - in 2002! So refreshing. Finally a coming of age story about real people with complex relationships. Moments of real pathos: Danny breaking down and falling into Lady Bird's arms as he cries that he's terrified of telling his mom that he's gay, begging her not to tell anyone - you could hear a fucking pin drop in that packed theater. It was really stunning. It's not particularly innovative and yeah the ending is predictable, but so what? Sometimes a nice piece of cake just needs to be that. I can't stress what a welcome relief this movie is from garbage like 20th Century Women or Moonrise Kingdom - more female counterpoints to that shit immediately, please! Saoirse Ronan fantastic obviously, along with everyone else. Gerwig knocked it out of the park.

Damn even Armond White liked this

I loathed Frances Ha and Mistress America, just awful,

oh come on

I love your response otherwise though!

garbage like 20th Century Women

wait wtf

I'm not a fan but I can understand what (lots and lots) of my filmcrit friends saw in it.

flappy - 20th century women rules....eh?

The depth of empathy for everyone on screen is worthy of comparisons to Renoir

Yes, good observation and a rare and refreshing virtue

Although the empathy may not have extended to bf #2

I recognized enough of myself and/or my friends at that age (i.e. the barter gag) that I extended it.

Chalamet is resourceful enough an actor (and Gerwig gives him the space) to remind us why we found selfish dicks hot as fuck.

Saw this tonight. I liked the last third better than the first hour--which is good, I'd rather have a film end strong. Favourite two things were the scene where Lois Smith suggested love = attention, and also Lady Bird's voiceover about driving around Sacramento (and the matching shots of her and her mom behind the wheel). I'm always moved by scenes where someone gets an acceptance letter in the mail for university--think I could name a half-dozen other good ones. And proms, I guess because I didn't go my own. I kind of wish Laurie Metcalf hadn't been given a milder version of the Mary Tyler Moore role from Ordinary People. She's just so funny on Roseanne; I missed that.

I'm always moved by scenes where someone gets an acceptance letter in the mail for university

With me it's scenes involving parents and kids entering college saying their goodbyes. This one offered a bittersweet and no less wrenching variation.

They're great too, and Lady Bird's wasn't like anything I'd ever seen. Sort of reminded me of Sarris writing about Notorious, how the camera settles on the villain rather than the two principals--not that Laurie Metcalf's the villain, but following her in and out of the airport was unusual and really nice.

the trailer makes this look like some rote indie h**ster film. i take it that the trailer is just rotten then?

The movie is a lot better than the trailer led me to expect

I loathed Frances Ha and Mistress America, just awful,

oh come on

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

I love your response otherwise though!

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

garbage like 20th Century Women

wait wtf

― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson)

I'm not a fan but I can understand what (lots and lots) of my filmcrit friends saw in it.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

flappy - 20th century women rules....eh?

― Week of Wonders (Ross)

Haven't seen Frances Ha since it came out 5 years ago but I really hated it, the world doesn't need another second of Woody Allen cosplay. It came out around the same time Girls premiered on HBO and I was just completely fed up with struggling artists (?) in love letters to NYC. Mistress America is fresh in my mind, I remember that one being just so weightless and full of noxious whimsy and silliness, as if Baumbach was trying to outdo the worst of Wes Anderson. I rewatched Greenberg tonight after making my initial post and seeing the responses, and it's even better than I remember. Brilliant movie. The Greenberg character is incredible, such a beautiful excoriation of a certain type of meek hipster that is all too often exalted and excused for in movies, culture, and society. The scene when he's doing coke with the millennials and he's going off about how he's better than them because they're "so sincere, and confident, and you don't have any hangups, and you listen to older, smart people...like me." The movie is such a fantastic dark satire, totally absurd at times, and I really despised Frances Ha & Mistress America because it was as if Baumbach embraced the sensibility of the effigy that he completely torched in his last movie.

20th Century Women... this is what I wrote at the time:

Mike Mills makes the same mistake here, presenting one-dimensional archetypes instead of the real people he claims to pay homage to. Some autobiography. 20th Century Women is slotted with scarecrows: the neurotic teenage boy who’s obviously a stand-in for the director (Lucas Jade Zumann); the slightly older girl that the director always wanted to fuck but got emotionally toyed with instead (Elle Fanning); the boy’s eccentric and often embarrassing free spirit of a mother (Annette Bening); and the new wave art girl who lived on the Lower East Side in the mid-1970s and moved back home, whose sole purpose is to give us reason to believe any of these people would be listening to Suicide and The Talking Heads or wearing Lou Reed and Devo t-shirts (that would be Greta Gerwig).

Do we really need another poignant scene of parents freaking out over Black Flag? Pick your generation and band of choice—20th Century Women is pure nostalgia porn, an exercise that should’ve been carried out in private, for much less money.

I liked Frances Ha, but I agree that it might be categorized as NY faux haplessness

Yeah it's her show based on her 1-woman play, she wrote it and exec produced it and even the title is a pisstake of her name.

I thought Lady Bird was insanely un-quirky? Like she thinks of herself as an outsider and weird but it’s more that she feels like an outlier due to economic status and her dislike of the popular kids.

I think the difference between this and, say, Juno, was the dialogue wasn’t super punchy. It’s not Ghost World because no one is wrapped up in an outlier identity (unless you count the goth crew in her house, and they act like normal people and her brother’s interviewing for norm office jobs). And it’s not a Mean Girls-style star vehicle because the main character is far from the center of her world. If anything, it’s about her figuring out how you even find your place in the world.

^agree

xp don't mean to give short shrift to Frances Ha, I think it is better than almost any other film mentioned in this thread

I didn’t really mean Pretty in Pink is a better movie, but I did feel like the socioeconomic angles in Lady Bird were presented in a more didactic way than in PiP. Where Lady Bird had flaws for me was in some tell-don’t-show tendencies.

fair

I feel like the attempt at understatedness in movies like LB mean we get more extended dialogue about “we don’t have the money!” where in obvious comedy it’s typified by a character just rolling up in a junket car with oil smoke coming from the hood as it lurches to a stop

quirk off the top of my head: early 90s outsider pink hair, jumps out of a car, runs for class office every year, buys lottery ticket, nudie mag, smokes on birthday, teacher shenanigans, did they ever say why she wanted to be called Lady Bird? Saorsie Ronan is soooo good in this though and Chalamet has dreamy eyes.

all of that stuff felt like things an "alternative" kid far from being actually that rebellious or countercultural would really do, rather than someone dreaming up "quirky" things to add "quirky" charm to a false character.... ymmv tho. i will also cop to being close to lady bird's age/generation, and so it feeling even close to "right" in getting the feel of what teenagerdom/high school felt like to me in that period goes a long way in me identifying with and finding it realistic.

I was a high school girl in the early 90s and I was a college rock/120 minutes kid, it still felt quirky. I just wanted the movie to be better and less obvious. It was so close.

wasn't it supposed to take place in the early 2000s? 2003 or something? i think the early 90s were a massively long time ago in lady bird years.

i guess i thought her quasi rebellious hair and clove-smoking were supposed to seem like perennial pursuits of the kind of girl who wants to distinguish herself from her peers and still remains more or less normal. there was nothing esp outstanding about her. i liked that about the movie tbh.

Derp, yeah it says 2002, I don't know why I thought 90s. Maybe because of the use of Crash.

Slums is a much better movie

Ladybird is good but it’s been done way better

Suburbia - slums - little miss sunshine ♥️

did they ever say why she wanted to be called Lady Bird?

No they didn’t, I watched it again to see if I missed anything but this is never explained! wtf

that's one of the good things about it

Lots about this movie felt auxiliary, like sometimes it was nice that certain characters were not expanded on too much but given their moment but some major characters felt underdeveloped to me, like the Mom (despite a wonderful performance).

when you're a teen, are moms ever really knowable

fwiw I took the musical choices of LB and her friend to be kind of this nerdy friend thing where they were still really stuck on the songs that came out when they were in middle school

What I liked most about LB was that it seemed made with a light touch which also suggested confidence/assurance. I loved when it indulged silly and absurd humor, like the football coach's stage directions.

The movie didn't really "stick with me" but definitely charmed and entertained.

i guess tuition got too expensive in NYC for Lady Bird :/ https://t.co/sG7T6LBuB4

— m (@myownprividaho) September 4, 2018

She shouldn't have taken that magazine!

wow @mugshotbaes is an obnoxious concept

absolutely but I won't deny I legitimately lol'd at this the moment I caught it

I was yesterday years old when I found out Beanie Feldstein is Jonah Hill's little sister.

you can see it in her face, but yeah, this is not widely known i dont think

oh weird.

this was great. so, so many killer lines

I watched it a few days ago and didn't actually care for it!

You monster why on earth not

I can't remember, I was drunk.

:)

Watching a movie drunk seems weird

not sure id actually seen saoirse in anything, tbh. jesus shes note perfect and better in this.

doing anything drunk seems weird, because youre drunk

Saoirse Ronan is the best

She hasn't given a bad performance yet.

I taught this film last fall -- my students love it.

I’m way overdue to see Brooklyn.

Alfred I should reiterate that I recall that your review you linked upthread really touched me.

Watching a movie drunk seems weird

― silby,

There's a pandemic on!

I do love Saoirse, though. A LOT.

I know the film makes her dowdy deliberately but I think she's astonishingly beautiful and she is so simpatico.

oh! Thank you! *hugs at 10 feet*

Brooklyn is old-fashioned solid-good film making and it is great and she looks incredible throughout. It has finesse.

I found it very moving, much to my surprise.

yes, I did too

and Emory Cohen is cute as fuck

yes, looked him up straight away.

He is not cute anywhere else.

his character in the novel is a perfect smouldering flame

he's kinda creepy-cute. intriguing.

I guess that's good/clever casting! xp