“I hate California. I want to go to the East Coast. I want to go to where culture is like New York,” says Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) in the first trailer for Greta Gerwig’s solo directorial debut. Rather than humoring her daughter, Lady Bird’s mother, Marion (Laurie Metcalf), is quick to point out just how bratty the teenager sounds: “How in the world did I raise such a snob?” she asks.
The pair’s relationship seems to be the focal point of the coming-of-age story. Described as “warm” but “also kind of scary” by one of Lady Bird’s friends, Marion tells her daughter — who is half-convinced that she hates her — that she just wants her to “be the very best version” of herself. But it looks like Lady Bird is struggling to be her ideal self. “You can’t do anything unless you’re the center of attention,” one of her friends claims. And she doesn’t seem to be totally off-base.
Gerwig described “Lady Bird” in an upcoming interview with us as being “about grace, wholly unearned and mysterious. It is about how home becomes most vivid when you are leaving. It is about Sacramento, California. It is about mothers and daughters and dances and religion and musicals and memory and grocery stores and parking lots and sex and messing up and realizing that whatever childhood was, now it’s over.”
When we asked the “Mistress America” and “Frances Ha” co-writer and star her advice for other female filmmakers, she said, “Make the film. Just start the steps to make it. One foot in front of the other. Because we need your films. I need your films. More practically, I think a lot of women wait for permission,” she observed. “I used to do that. I still do that. I think it’s the curse of being the ‘good student’ — never wanting to get out of line or be disruptive or deviate from the assignment. But making art? There is no assignment, there is no teacher — you must give yourself sovereignty. Never wait for permission. No one will ever give it to you.”
Gerwig previously co-directed “Nights and Weekends.”
“Lady Bird” just made its world premiere at Telluride to rave reviews, with many speculating that Ronan will earn her second Oscar nod in a row following her nomination for “Brooklyn.” The film will next screen at TIFF, and is scheduled to hit theaters November 10.
