| Lady Bird | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Greta Gerwig |
| Written by | Greta Gerwig |
| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Sam Levy |
| Edited by | Nick Houy |
| Music by | Jon Brion |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 94 minutes[2] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $10 million[3] |
| Box office | $79 million[4] |
Lady Bird is a 2017 Americancoming-of-agecomedy drama film written and directed byGreta Gerwig in her solo directorial debut, starringSaoirse Ronan,Laurie Metcalf,Tracy Letts,Lucas Hedges,Timothée Chalamet,Beanie Feldstein,Stephen McKinley Henderson, andLois Smith. Set inSacramento, California during the early 2000s, it focuses on a high school senior who has a turbulent relationship with her mother.
Filming forLady Bird took place from August to October 2016 in California and New York. It premiered at the44th Telluride Film Festival on September 1, 2017, and was released theatrically in the United States on November 3, 2017, byA24, grossing $79 million, becoming their highest-grossing film at the time. The film received widespread critical acclaim, with high praise drawn to Gerwig's screenplay and direction, and the performances of Ronan and Metcalf. It is considered by many critics as one of the best films of 2017 and one of the best films of the 2010s and the 21st century.Lady Bird was chosen by theNational Board of Review, theAmerican Film Institute, andTime magazine as one of the top ten films of 2017.[5][6][7] At the90th Academy Awards, it earned five nominations:Best Picture,Best Actress (for Ronan),Best Supporting Actress (for Metcalf),Best Original Screenplay, andBest Director. At the75th Golden Globe Awards, the film won two awards—Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) andBest Actress in a Musical or Comedy (for Ronan)—and was nominated for two others. It was also nominated for threeBritish Academy Film Awards. The film was released with asoundtrack.
In the fall of 2002, Christine McPherson, who calls herself "Lady Bird", is a senior at a Catholic high school[a] inSacramento, California. Despite her family's financial struggles, she longs to attend a prestigious college in "a city with culture" on theEast Coast. During a car ride, Lady Bird's mother Marion tells her that she is ungrateful and her dreams are unrealistic. To prove a point, Lady Bird jumps from the moving car, breaking her arm.
Lady Bird and her best friend Julie join their school's theater program. Although Lady Bird resents Julie's comparative talent, she meets her new boyfriend Danny through the program. She spends her last Thanksgiving before graduation with Danny's wealthy family, disappointing Marion. However, Lady Bird catches Danny kissing a boy and breaks up with him.
At Marion's behest, Lady Bird begins working at a coffee shop to earn money. She tries to become more popular by bonding with popular students Kyle and Jenna, exaggerating her family's wealth and vandalizing a nun's car with Jenna. She reconciles with Danny after he confronts her to apologize and tearfully expresses his fear ofcoming out, but leaves the theater program and spends less time with Julie.
Lady Bird's new relationships begin to fall apart. After she is suspended from school for heckling a guest speaker at ananti-abortionassembly, Jenna tries to visit her and is dismayed to learn that Lady Bird dishonestly told her that Danny's grandmother's house was her own. Lady Bird kisses Kyle at a party, and they confess to each other that they are both virgins. However, when they have sex for the first time (an experience Lady Bird finds underwhelming), Kyle admits he was lying. Deeply wounded, Lady Bird seeks comfort from her mother, who provides it without asking for an explanation.
Marion begs Lady Bird to only apply to California colleges, revealing that Lady Bird's father, Larry, has lost his job and cannot afford out-of-state tuition. Despite Marion's concerns, Larry secretly encourages Lady Bird to apply to her dream schools, resolving torefinance their homemortgage if necessary. When admissions decisions are released, Lady Bird is dismayed to hear that her presumptive destination isUC Davis, just 20 minutes away. She is waitlisted for a university inNew York City, but does not tell Marion.
Onprom night, Kyle, Jenna, and Jenna's boyfriend decide to skip the prom in favor of attending a house party. Lady Bird initially agrees to go with them, but changes her mind and visits Julie instead. They rekindle their friendship and go to prom together.
Danny accidentally mentions the waitlist in front of Marion, who gives Lady Bird the silent treatment for the remainder of the summer, even after she is accepted. Before she leaves for New York, her parents drop her off at the airport, but Marion refuses to go inside to say goodbye. Marion eventually relents, but Lady Bird has already gone through security. Marion breaks down crying in Larry's arms.
After arriving in New York, Lady Bird finds several heartfelt, unfinished letters from Marion in her luggage, which Marion initially threw away before Larry began secretly collecting them for Lady Bird. Moved, Lady Bird begins going by her given name, Christine, again.
Christine is hospitalized after drinking heavily at a college party. After being released, she goes to a local church[b] and is moved to tears. Christine calls home and leaves a message for her mother, apologizing and thanking her for all her help.
Gerwig spent years writing the screenplay for "Lady Bird". At one point, it was over 350 pages long and had theworking titleMothers and Daughters.[10] In 2015, Gerwig and her team secured financing fromIAC Films, who produced the film alongsideScott Rudin Productions.[11] Gerwig's manager,Evelyn O'Neill, also served as a producer.[11]
Although the film has been described as "semi-autobiographical",[12] Gerwig has said that "nothing in the movie literally happened in my life, but it has a core of truth that resonates with what I know".[10] To prepare the cast and crew, Gerwig gave them her old high-school yearbooks, photos, and journals, as well as passages written byJoan Didion, and she took them on a tour of her hometown.[13][14] She told Sam Levy, thedirector of photography on the film, that she wanted it to feel "like a memory,"[15] and said that she "sought to offer a female counterpart to tales likeThe 400 Blows andBoyhood."[12] The film was Gerwig's first as a solo director, though she had previously co-written and co-directedNights and Weekends withJoe Swanberg in 2008.[16]
In September 2015, Gerwig met withSaoirse Ronan at theToronto International Film Festival, where they were promotingMaggie's Plan andBrooklyn, respectively. They read through the script in a hotel room, with Ronan reading the part of Lady Bird, and Gerwig reading the other characters. Gerwig realized, by the second page of the reading, that Ronan was the right choice for the title role.[17][18] In January 2016, Ronan was cast.[19] Gerwig met withLucas Hedges and offered him his choice of the male parts. He chose Danny.[20][21] Gerwig castLaurie Metcalf after watching her theater work, while the rest of the cast, includingTracy Letts,Timothée Chalamet,Beanie Feldstein,John Karna andJordan Rodrigues, was announced in September 2016.[22][23][24]
Principal photography was scheduled to begin in March 2016, but was delayed to August because of Ronan's commitments to aBroadway production ofThe Crucible.[25] Filming began in Sacramento, California on August 30, 2016, for one week. Five weeks were spent on location in Los Angeles,[11] with additional shooting in New York City, and filming wrapped on October 1, 2016.[26] Originally, Gerwig wanted to shoot the film onSuper 16 film, but due to budget constraints, she ultimately shot on theArri Alexa Mini. Inpost-production, the filmmakers emphasized digitalnoise, to create the effect of a copy of a photograph.[27]
Ronan dyed her hair red for the role and did not wear makeup to cover heracne, viewing the film as "an opportunity to let a teenager's face in a movie actually look like a teenager's face in real life".[28] To put the cast and crew at ease by knowing exactly how the day would run, Gerwig, using a technique she learned from filmmakerRebecca Miller, arrived an hour before everyone else. She also banned cell phones on the set, which was a policy she borrowed from her partner, filmmakerNoah Baumbach.[29]
In July 2017,A24 acquired worldwide distribution rights to the film.[30] The film had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on September 1, 2017,[31] and screened at theToronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2017,[32] and at theNew York Film Festival on October 8, 2017.[33]Focus Features acquired international distribution rights to the film.[34] It was released theatrically in the United States on November 3, 2017,[35] in the United Kingdom on February 16, 2018, and in Ireland on February 23, 2018.[36]
Lady Bird grossed $49 million in the United States and Canada, and $30 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $79 million.[4]
In its limited opening weekend, it grossed $364,437 from four theaters, for a per-theater average of $91,109.[37] It had the second best theater average of 2017, and the highest ever for a film in limited release directed by a woman.[38] The film expanded to 37 theaters in its second weekend, and grossed a three-day total of $1.2 million, finishing tenth at the box office.[39] In its third weekend, the film expanded to 238 theaters, and grossed a three-day total of $2.5 million, finishing eighth at the box office.[40]
The film had its official wide release on November 24, playing in 724 theaters and making $4.1 million over the weekend ($5.4 million over the five-dayThanksgiving frame), finishing eleventh.[41] Expanding to 1,194 theaters the following week the film grossed $4.3 million, returning to eighth place.[42]Lady Bird also became A24's highest-grossing film domestically, ahead ofMoonlight, which made $27.9 million.[43] The weekend of January 27, 2018, following the announcement of the film's five Oscar nominations, it made $1.9 million (an increase over the previous week's $1.1 million).[44]
Lady Bird received astanding ovation at its international premiere at theToronto International Film Festival,[45] and was praised for Ronan and Metcalf's performances, and Gerwig's direction.[46][47] OnRotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 99% based on 400 reviews, with an average rating of 8.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads "Lady Bird delivers fresh insights about the turmoil of adolescence and reveals debuting writer-director Greta Gerwig as a fully formed filmmaking talent."[48] On November 27, 2017, it became the film with the most professional reviews to remain at 100% on the site with 164 positive reviews, beating previous record holderToy Story 2, which had 163 positive reviews at the time.[49] Itstayed at 100% until a negative review by Cole Smithey was published;[50] Smithey, who had previously done the same forToy Story 3's record 100% score,[51] later admitted he intentionally designed his review to lower its score.[52] OnMetacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 93 out of 100, based on reviews from 50 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[53]
A. O. Scott ofThe New York Times describedLady Bird as "big-screen perfection ... exceptionally well-written, full of wordplay and lively argument. Every line sounds like something a person might actually say, which means that the movie is also exceptionally well acted."[54]Todd McCarthy ofThe Hollywood Reporter wrote the film was "modestly scaled but creatively ambitious" and "succeeds on its own terms as a piquant audience pleaser", and gave praise to Ronan, who he said "just seems to keep getting better all the time."[55] Peter Debruge ofVariety praised Gerwig's direction and script as well as Ronan's performance.[47]Mick LaSalle of theSan Francisco Chronicle wrote the film was "simply beautiful" and "warm and inspired", hailing the performances of Ronan and Metcalf as well as Gerwig's direction and screenplay.[56]
The Washington Post'sAnn Hornaday described the film as a "triumph of style, sensibility and spirit" while similarly praising Ronan's performance and Gerwig's direction.[57]Peter Travers ofRolling Stone rated the film 3.5 out of four stars in which he deemed it as "simply irresistible" and complimented the film's plot and narrative while highlighting the performances of Ronan and Metcalf in which he stated as an "Oscar calling" and Gerwig's direction as "full-blown triumph". He also declared it as one of the year's best films.[58]Richard Roeper of theChicago Sun-Times called the film "unique and original and fresh and wonderful" and "appealing" while lauding the performances (particularly Metcalf and Letts) in which he remarked that "There's no level of acting on a higher plane than what [Metcalf] and [Letts] achieve in this film. This is what greatness looks like."[59]Alonso Duralde ofTheWrap remarked that "Gerwig the actress skillfully pivots between the wacky and the poignant, so it's no surprise that Gerwig the auteur so delicately balances hilarity and heartbreak".[60]
InPaste, Jim Vorel argued that the film portrays an abusive maternal relationship.[61]
Lady Bird garnered a variety of awards and nominations.[62] The film was chosen by theNational Board of Review, theAmerican Film Institute, andTime magazine as one of the top 10 films of 2017.[5][63][64] In 2018,Lady Bird was awardedThe ReFrame Stamp in the2017 Narrative & Animated Feature category.[65]
At the90th Academy Awards, it was nominated forBest Picture,Best Director andBest Original Screenplay for Gerwig,Best Actress for Ronan, andBest Actress in a Supporting Role for Metcalf.[66] It did not win in any of the five categories in which it was nominated.
The film also received eight nominations at the23rd Critics' Choice Awards, includingBest Picture,Best Director,Best Actress,Best Supporting Actress,Best Original Screenplay, andBest Acting Ensemble.[67] At the75th Golden Globe Awards, it was nominated forBest Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy (won),Best Actress – Musical or Comedy for Ronan (won),Best Supporting Actress for Metcalf, andBest Screenplay.[68] At the24th Screen Actors Guild Awards, it was nominated forOutstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for Ronan,Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role for Metcalf, andOutstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.[69]
In a series of articles regarding the best of the2010s in film,IndieWire rankedLady Bird as the 10th best film of the decade.Rolling Stone ranked it 23rd,The A.V. Club ranked it 10th,Business Insider ranked it 5th, andConsequence of Sound ranked it 90th. It was the 13th most overall mentioned on best of decade lists tying withSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse according toMetacritic. In 2018,IndieWire writers ranked the script the eighth best American screenplay of the 21st century.[70] The February 2020 issue ofNew York Magazine listsLady Bird as among "The Best Movies That Lost Best Picture at the Oscars."[71] In June 2025, the film ranked number 39 onThe New York Times' list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century" and number 36 on the "Readers' Choice" edition of the list.[72][73] In July 2025, it ranked number 29 onRolling Stone's list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century."[74]
In February 2018, on an episode ofThe A24 Podcast, Gerwig expressed interest in makingspiritual successors toLady Bird, saying "I would like to do a quartet of Sacramento films" modeled on theNeapolitan Novels ofElena Ferrante.[75]
the budget (nearly $10 million in financing, thanks to Barry Diller's IAC)
Lady Bird has been described as Greta Gerwig's directorial debut. Yet, with ... a co-director credit on Joe Swanberg's 2008 mumblecore dramaNights and Weekends, it's not as though she is new to making movies.
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Data from Wikidata
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