CinÉireann Issue 8 | Page 25

perspective, revolutionary.

The character of Lady Bird is a delight. She comes endowed with all of the less desirable traits we associate with teenagers - thoughtlessness, callousness, self-involvement to the point of delusion. What sets her apart is Gerwig's insistence on allowing her to be this way. Lady Bird is vested with a divine and completely unchecked agency, striding through every frame of the film without a modicum of self-doubt. Her interactions with guidance counsellors are painted in warm, knowing tones; their attempts to steer her focus in a more realistic direction undercut by a fondness obvious in both their characters and the film itself. Even Lady Bird's most pointed experience of betrayal is captured with a knowing and light heart. After losing her virginity, Lady Bird discovers that Kyle, her boyfriend, was not the virgin he had claimed to be. She is incandescent with rage at the ruination of her 'whole experience' but never once does she turn that anger inward. There is no tearful moment of solitude in which she covers up her body, ashamed of her decisions or desires to be intimate. There is no scornful reproach from a friend or family member, rebuking her for putting her trust in a partner. Instead, Lady Bird swiftly casts Kyle off and comes back to her best friend Julie, dismissing her annoyance in favour of a fuller focus on herself and her ambitions. It is impossible to overstate how groundbreaking this portrayal of character is. Gerwig writes Lady Bird with a deft and deeply loving hand, endowing her with an unbroken streak of ardent self-assurance that is all the more striking for how utterly unassuming it is. It never even occurs to Lady Bird to turn her rejections or disappointments on herself. Indeed, she spends precious little time on all the common tropes of coming-of-age films (romance, friendships, prom dates) in favour of simply being. She is emboldened rather than broken by her experiences, and comes away from each setback with a newly reinforced belief in the significance of her dreams. Gerwig's skill with character is (or should be) familiar to all of us from her previous writing, but in directing, she imputes Lady Bird's internalised perspective to a wider frame; infusing the totality of her film with the strength and conviction of her lead.

In structure, as in form, Lady Bird allows its protagonist to dictate the narrative flow. Its breezy pacing and short, lively scenes reflect the chosen remembrances of Lady Bird herself, as she takes a conscious note of the moments, feelings, and exchanges that bear the most significance for her. Many scenes are bookended by brief, thoughtful glimpses into the lives of those around her. The private pain of her drama teacher Father Leviatch. The girlish crush of her best friend Julie on their maths teacher. Her mother and father's tense conversations about money. In the moment, these register as loose, throwaway details which, for the most part, have little effect upon the narrative. Yet their inclusion highlights an attentiveness on the part of Lady Bird, and one which further underlines the immediacy and centrality of her perspective. The scenes are lit in warm, rosy hues which carry a distinct air of nostalgia. The impression is of a narrator in complete control of her tale, carefully selecting the moments she will look back on in later life. The longer moments spent dwelling on the lives of others is telling. Their meaning may not be immediately clear, but the attentiveness is. It implies that later, in the fullness of adulthood and with more life experience, Lady Bird herself will come to understand the private significance of these moments for each person involved. Rather than appointing an external voice to explicitly decode them, the character is portrayed as subliminally gathering of all the details she needs for a fully informed and enriched perspective. She will look back on these with a bittersweet eye, not because she was oblivious to something that was later explained for her, but because she will one day come to understand the importance of these tender human frailties to the people and environments which shaped her. As Ronan commented in an interview with the Independent, '...everyone's dealing with their own stuff. Everyone has an issue, everyone has a sadness. And even if you don't see that straight away, it doesn't mean it's not there and it doesn't exist for someone. So, it's a really empowering thing.'

CinÉireann / June 2018 25