Lady Bird (2017)

PRIEST: Okay Christine

CHRISTINE: Lady Bird.

P: Is that your given name?

C: Yeah.

P: Why is it in quotes?

C: Well, I gave it to myself; it's given to me, by me.

The scene above is one of many humorous exchanges in Greta Gerwing's Lady Bird, a film about a high school senior in Sacramento, California that takes her birthplace literally and gives us just that -- the sacraments -- as our hero passes through them, en route to divine grace, with stops at the gas station that is narcissistic rage.

The senior's name is Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson and her mission is to graduate from high school and go to university on the east coast, "where culture is," not UC Davis, which is close by. You get the impression her loving parents would grant her this if they had the means, but Dad just lost his job (the film is set in 2002, and we are right to assume he was caught in the popping of the dot com bubble), so Lady Bird has to take measures into her own hands, which she does, entertainingly.

I've been thinking a lot lately about Greta Gerwing's more recent Barbie (2023) and her creation and deployment of the wise and wonderful Weird Barbie. The great thing about Weird Barbie is she is not a corporate creation but a folk hero co-authored by the people. Weird Barbie has insight and experience, and provides guidance to Barbie, just as Lady Bird too has insights, not to mention faith, loyalty, courage and critique, which she dispenses freely to those who share her alienation, but also to the cool kids who, despite seeing her as "weird," find her interesting, if not useful. But she calls bullshit on them as well.

Saoirse Ronan starred in Gerwing's first two films and appears on friendly terms with the director. I wonder if she was considered for the role of Weird Barbie? Oh well. Everything turned out fine.