Film Review: Ladybird

The year is 2002, and Christine McPherson, who calls herself ‘Ladybird’ is on the way home from a college trip with her mother Marion. The two sit side by side in the car, listening to an audiobook of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, both tearful and filled with emotion. But the moment is short-lived as the pair begin to argue over Ladybird’s plans for the future, resulting in a dramatic exit from the vehicle and a bright pink cast on her arm.

Ladybird, played by the fantastic Saoirse Ronan, is 17 years old and in her final year at a Catholic high school in Sacremento. Like many teenagers on the cusp of adulthood, she is beginning to find her hometown suffocating, desperate to spread her wings and experience all that life has to offer, all accompanied by her best friend Julie (Beanie Feldstein).

As the two walk home from school together, they swoon over the big houses in the wealthy neighbourhoods, dreaming of what life would look like if they were rich and popular. Their friendship seems inseparable, as they hide together at the back of the school Church, snacking on communion wafers and talking about the pleasures of a showerhead.

But Ladybird soon becomes infatuated with Danny (Lucas Hedges), a sweet and innocent red-head who is playing the lead in the schools musical. Their romance is PG, chaperoned under the watchful eye of the nuns who enforce an arm’s length dancing policy in order to leave “6-inches for the holy spirit”. But Ladybird doesn’t seem to mind, young and naive, the pair name stars after one another and shout ‘I love you’s’ into the night's sky.

But as things become rocky at home for Ladybird after her father loses his job, she begins to act out, lying about herself in order to be accepted by the rich kids at school. Her new found attitude soon leads her down the wrong path, where she meets Kyle, the introspective intellectual who rolls his own cigarettes (Timothée Chalamet). Ladybird’s new identity only increases the emotional distance between herself and her mother, as they continue to fight over Ladybird’s desire to apply to universities far away from home.

This film showcases the ups and downs of adolescent self-discovery brilliantly, capturing the anxiety that surrounds leaving home for the very first time as Ladybird realises that Sacramento has been the security blanket she never really knew she needed.

But this films real triumph is its wonderful portrayal of female relationships, specifically the importance of friendships between women and the fraught but unbreakable bond between mother and daughter. Laurie Metcalf, in particular, is fantastic in the role of the overworked and overbearing mother, who is doing the best she can to raise a fiery and headstrong teen.

Although covering a lot of stereotypical adolescent themes, the story manages to capture the innermost feelings of a what it is like to be a young girl and is told so charmingly that it somehow makes you nostalgic for a place you’ve never been. This film stands as a testament to what can be done when female filmmakers are given the platform to create. Greta Gerwig, bravo.

Ladybird is screening at Broadway Cinema until Thursday 8th March

Trailer