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Ladybird (2017)

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Edgy MD Jan 11 2018 07:14 PM

Teenager spends her senior year at a Sacramento Catholic high school rebelling, experimenting, and clashing with her mother. Perhaps the first nostalgia movie set in this century. [fimg=400:3547axsk]https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81prIZTJ9JL._RI_.jpg[/fimg:3547axsk]

metirish Jan 12 2018 06:59 AM Re: Ladybird (2017)

Have not seen this but rather amazingly Saoirse Ronan get a lot of stick in Ireland for her Dublin accent ( in general I mean, not the move) she is a wonderful actor and this is typical of things in ireland , very begrudging of success. https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film ... -1.2490377

Mets Willets Point Jan 12 2018 07:17 AM Re: Ladybird (2017)

Isn't she from the Bronx?

Edgy MD Jan 12 2018 11:18 AM Re: Ladybird (2017)

I didn't get the buzz for this movie at all. Perfectly OK for a first time out, but so much of the script and direction projects that it's ... the filmmaker's first time out. I mean basic stuff is betraying them, too, like the room sound didn't match from shot to shot. Plot elements were left to die off mid-film. What happened to the depressed priest? To the gay kid? She seems intent to not tell just another Catholic school story where the characters are one-dimensional cutouts set up for cheap and easy laughs, and that's great. But she isn't above falling back into just that with a few hapless characters (the substitute director for the second play, the assembly speaker). So the tone shifts weirdly and abruptly to something that seems to come out of a different film. I like that the protagonist isn't another precocious wunderkind. She's dumb and does dumb things in a way that even smart teenagers do (both of her boyfriend choices were doomed from the start), and that kind of makes up for the fact that the star is of post-collegiate age. But I count at least four times that she's just self-centeredly cruel to somebody, and she more or less gets forgiven each time without gaining enough self-awareness to avoid doing it again. I guess that makes it more realistic, but it keeps a real narrative arc from developing. I think it gets a little extra love for being budget-y art house fair but having a young, near-A-list leading lady deigning to lend it her credibility. (After Brooklyn, she probably has an X-Men role or something being pushed at her.) About a third of my theater was inhabited by true believers, guffawing at every turn, just a little too early, indicating that they were repeat viewers. Is this what it's like at Hamilton? On the way out, I found an abandoned handbag at the end of my row. I tried to turn it in to somebody but the theater was staffed by beautiful art school students who were all I didn't know there would be decision making in this job and weren't sure who should take the bag. So my wife tried to find a responsible manager in the house, while I waited at a point of egress. All I remembered of the woman at the end of my row was that her date had long legs. (I tend to get up to pee more than your typical moviegoer.) So that's what I was looking for — a woman without a handbag who had a date with long legs. Imagine my joy when I spotted JUST SUCH A COUPLE. "Excuse me," I said, "Did you misplace your handbag?" She briefly gave me that, "Are you actually cool enough to be talking to me? How nice am I really obliged to be here?" look. It was brief but I recognized it, before she followed up with a terse, "No." I doubled back to find my wife, who hadn't yet connected with management. We thought about going through the purse to find some ID while we waited for a minute or two, when that same bagless woman came back in and asked me "Was that bag gray?" "Yeah." "Then it is mine. I didn't think I had brought it." We turn it over. No, "Thank you." No smile. No nothing. She scuttled on out to her boyfriend waiting on the sidewalk in his skinny jeans with an artful boredom. We had felt a wallet and a phone in there. My wife would rather lose a lung than a handbag. But this young Ladybird fan escaped her transaction with uncool me as quickly and as coldly as she could. I had gone to the trouble of staking out a point of egress looking to find her! I probably shouldn't factor this experience into my assessment of the film, or should I?

cooby Jan 12 2018 01:25 PM Re: Ladybird (2017)

But you probably aways will...thank god you didn't get caught going through it

Frayed Knot Jan 12 2018 07:56 PM Re: Ladybird (2017)

I've yet to see this one and, being a bit out of the demographic for young women coming of age flicks, it'll probably be a while before I do (like probably later in the year via cable or Netflix). But between the praise for this movie from critics being so universal, the actress and first-time director already being media darlings, and the 'me-too' theme hanging over this year's award season at least as much as 'oscarssowhite' was last year (there was already a snide remark at the Golden Globes about all the director nominees being male) I'd be shocked this isn't at least nominated for best picture and if Gerwig isn't for best director. I think it's even possible that she, and maybe even the film itself, would win despite it being her rookie effort.

Vic Sage Jan 23 2018 07:45 AM Re: Ladybird (2017)

While i agree with many of Edgy's criticisms, i liked it nonetheless. I found it funny, touching, and believable. And i disagree that the character has no arc. I admired her spunk and ambition and desire not to settle for a life in Sacramento, so even when she does stupid or cruel things, i hope she's able to work it out. And she does, learning life lessons along the way. In the catholic school kid coming of age genre, its a solid entry after HEAVEN HELP US. i think it'll get a screenplay nom at least, and one for the girl and maybe one for Laurie Metcalf, who is brilliant as always. Also the dad, played by playwright Tracy Letts, is a solid performance.