Ladybird: Review

I never used to enjoy coming-of-age films. I used to get annoyed with the formula of: Teen thinks the world is unfair even though they live in a house any real person would kill for. They struggle to find romance even though they are played by 20 odd year old supermodels and unless it's a comedy we are subjected to a series of whines and moans about the world until all the angst simply dissipates as the character enters a triumphant adulthood.

But apart from the formula there are a few other reasons coming-of-age films have never appealed to me. For one there are very few coming-of-age stories about young women while there are tonnes about young men. While it's easy to place this down to simple sexism I think part of this is due to a boys coming-of-age story being more visual. The number one rule of filmmaking is to "show don't tell" and it's much easier to visualise a stereotypical boys coming-of-age story than a girls even though they would include a lot of the same beats. There is a belief that women's coming-of-age won't be able to generate humour or be entertaining and therefore isn't very marketable to mainstream audiences. It's kind of embarrassing that I can think of tonnes of coming-of-age films about puberty for a boy but the only film I think I've ever seen showing a period is Carrie... just something to think about.

Of course a large part of this boy to girl subject ratio is due to a lack of female directors and writers in mainstream hollywood which means your usual teen centred films are all commissioned, written, produced and directed by men so of course they are going to write about the experiences they know and I imagine it would turn out kind of awful if a 40 odd year old man tried to write a film about the authentic coming-of-age experiences of a teenage girl.

All in all I don't think I've ever recognised myself in a coming-of-age film until this year when I watched Booksmart and finally Ladybird.

I watched Ladybird as part of a current campaign I'm on to become as cinelitterate as my peers at Uni. This exercise has introduced me to a lot of great films and even more importantly a few really interesting female filmmakers for me to obsess over. Greta Gerwig has become one of these women. In the picture above she is directing the prom scene in her old prom dress... which is brilliant.

Gerwig has a style which is both very tangible and organic while being beautifully cinematic at the same time, with a keen eye for visual comedy and subtlety in performance.

Most of Ladybird was shot on an Arri digital camera and was 98% single camera according to the cinematographer, using mostly steady cams and jibs. This might be why the camera movement feels more kinetic. The grain added to the film in post giving it an interesting almost film like texture.

She knows how to use visuals to evoke emotions, making me break down in tears just through some exterior panning shots. Overall Gerwig is extremely well versed in her craft which is why she is the 5th woman ever to be nominated for best director at the oscars... damn that statistic is depressing. It would be better if she was the second female director to win an oscar... there's really not many ways I can spin this positively those statistics are sad...

Ladybird is about a young woman called Christine who lives in Sacramento with her mum, dad, half brother and her brother's girlfriend. Christine refuses to use her birth name instead referring to herself as Ladybird. The film documents Ladybird's last year at high school while she enjoys the highs of her first romance, they lows of her tenuous relationship with her mother all while trying to figure out who she is, who she is determined is not going to be like anyone in her family. Ladybird is the person she wants to be. A successful person who can make friends easily and has the confidence to say and wear whatever she wants.

I don't think I've ever identified as much with a character in a film as I have with Christine and I think it's revealed to me some things about myself that I wasn't expecting. In highschool I think a lot of people can relate to playing a different version of themselves. When you don't really know who you are yet I think the easiest thing to do is to play at being the grown up version of you that you want to be, instead of the kid you actually are. I've always been told that I'm mature for my age and I've always taken it as a compliment but now I'm actually an adult who has to do laundry and make meal plans, I have no idea why I was like that. I find immature humour as funny as everyone else but I never joined in because I think I wanted adults to like me for some weird reason. In high school I didn't have any enemies but I don't think anyone saw me as a fun person that they'd invite round to parties. Part of me wishes now that I'd had a rebellious streak and enjoyed being a teen because now that time is nearly over and therefore I have no excuse for doing stupid things just for the sake of doing it.

Christine does much of the same thing. As Ladybird she plays a part that is desperate to be grown up. She wants a boyfriend, she wants to have sex, she wants to have a career, she wants independence not realising what she's missing out on just enjoying her youth.

The antithesis of Ladybird or the anti-ladybird if you will is Christine's mother played by the brilliant Laurie Metcalf. While Ladybird is a coming-of-age story it is unlike any other in the way it includes the parents in this journey. Marion has a complicated relationship with her daughter. Part loving and attentive, part controlling and spiteful the frustration between these two characters is palpable. Their relationship is best shown in the films famous opening in which the two have a fight over Ladybird's future ambitions and Christine, so frustrated by her mother's negativity decides to throw herself out of the car door.

This opening scene is probably one of my all time favourites as it brings together so many character elements in a way which is both funny and also sets up the premise for the entire film, as Ladybird will eventually go to sign up to far away universities behind her mother's back.

I don't want to talk too heavily about the ending of this film as I want to encourage as many people who haven't seen it as possible to go and watch it. But I will say that just as I relate to Christine at the beginning of the film, I relate just as much to her at the end. As someone who used to dislike their hometown, missing it profusely now I'm not there. As someone who made friends for life when I wasn't trying to be friends with everyone in the world and as someone who spent most of their highschool days trying to be an adult and is much happier with the real adult I hope I'm turning out to be.

Ladybird is a true classic and long may discussion about it continue.

10/10