Lives up to the billing. <em>'Lady Bird'</em> is great viewing. The teen drama bits are solidly portrayed, though it is the family stuff that I think really powers the film to upper echelons. Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf are terrific, Ronan obviously most so but Metcalf merits praise too; particularly at the end. Tracy Letts is a positive as well. Other good cast members include Timothée Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein, Stephen McKinley Henderson (his branch of the plot kinda vanishes, mind) and Lois Smith. Kathryn Newton is apparently in there, didn't even recognise her! In fact, there wasn't anyone onscreen that I didn't like, so that's always a sign for a movie of quality. Happy that this is indeed an excellent film, one I've seen popping up regularly across Letterboxd in recent years. About time I watched it, just the 2.8 million users on that platform who have done so already...

**_Saoirse Ronan coming-of-age at a Catholic school in Sacramento_** During her senior year in 2002-2003, a girl from “the wrong side of the tracks” (Saoirse) takes on the struggles of a challenging mother, friendships, romance and a school play, as well as the pursuit of “culture” and a college education in the East. "Lady Bird" (2017) was somewhat based on the writer/director’s experiences growing up in Sacramento. She went on to fame with her 2023 hit “Barbie.” This is the first movie I’ve seen of hers and she’s a proficient writer & filmmaker, but her style turns me off somehow. It’s not just the few digs at wise Conservativism, but the overall writing and filmmaking, which failed to draw me into the characters and their experiences. Her style just isn’t my thang, speaking as someone who appreciates compelling coming-of-age flicks, including artistic ones, like “Clueless,” “The Man in the Moon,” “Dead Poets Society,” “Little Darlings,” “The Virgin Suicides,” “Footloose,” “The Way Way Back” and “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” Even spare-change Indies, like “Love Everlasting” and “Colossal Youth,” are all-around superior entertainments. The similar “Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael” had its issues, but it’s a masterpiece compared to this. I’m not saying “Lady Bird” doesn’t have its artistic appeal but, by the last act, I can honestly say I hated it. Odeya Rush as Jenna is one of the few highlights, along with Timothée Chalamet as the cool dude. The film runs 1 hours, 34 minutes, and was shot in Sacramento, areas of SoCal and Manhattan. GRADE: D+

Saoirse Ronan is "Christine McPherson" (aka "LadyBird"). In the final year of her high school life, she has to deal with all of the conflicting influences as her adulthood - and future - looms. She has a strong relationship with her father; a more torrid one with her mother - and generally resents what she perceives to be her family's rather hand-to-mouth existence in Sacramento. It's a tale of her emotional development, her boyfriends (Lucas Hedges and Timothée Chalamet) and of her journey to adulthood that is at times poignant, at times self-indulgent but unfortunately, for me anyway, pretty disengaging. Her character is selfish and thoughtless - although not unsophisticated. Like many a story of our adolescence, it is fascinating for those it effects but is little more than dreary hormonal stuff for observers. This is the latter, I'm afraid, with plenty of well trodden clichés to make 94 minutes seem quite a lot longer... Not for me, I'm afraid.