The perfect love letter to adolescence, home, and the early noughties.

Ah yes, the millennium. What a time to be alive. It was an era of optimism for a prosperous future, yet tinged with fear as we stepped boldly into the unknown. With change and an undetermined future stretched out ahead of us the turn of the millennium saw us at a crossroads in so many ways.

Hitting university (quite literally, at times) just as the millennium began to warm up, the early noughties were a time I’ll never forget. And with the world growing up chock-full of hopes, fears, and dreams; so too was I, as my own coming-of-age drama had just reached its third act.

As a time of flux for many, Lady Bird’s early-millennial setup is about as perfect as it gets for a coming-of-age backdrop; with Greta Gerwig digging deep to produce something truly special.

Known to friends, family, and herself as ‘Lady Bird’; Christine McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) spends her days pining to leave the suffocating confines of Sacramento for a life of culture at a ‘sophisticated’ East Coast college. However, with average grades and parents struggling to make ends meet, Lady Bird’s aspirations for a better life look all but over. Determined not to let these trivial details beat her, Lady Bird must navigate a whirlwind of college applications, unsatisfying relationships, awkwardly blooming sexuality, and an overbearing mother in order to escape the shackles of her small town existence and live out her dreams.

9/11, the War on Terror, impending financial meltdown – by throwing our protagonist head-first into such a time of upheaval and uncertainty, director Greta Gerwig utilises the 2002 time-frame to perfection by allowing it to inform Lady Bird’s personal drama, while lending the film a distinct sense of time and place.

As with all coming-of-age films, Lady Bird is an unabashed nostalgia piece for an era that Gerwig obviously holds close to her heart, yet what sets the film apart from many of its peers is just how thorough it is with its setting and how expertly the director executes her vision.

Balancing indie cool and nostalgia, without it ever feeling forced, annoying, or overly whimsical is a tough act to pull off, but Gerwig gets the tone spot on. With a straight-shooting, unfussy style; the director creates a harmonious and endearing viewing experience that allows her cast ample room to succeed.

Lady Bird herself is a character seemingly created as an amalgam of every teenage protagonist in coming-of-age movie history, but while her overload of adolescent indie cool could easily grate if handled incorrectly, there’s something in the character’s carefree charm and sweetly pitched humanity that never fails to endear.

Sure she’s egotistical, narcissistic, pretentious, and far too full of self-importance…but what teenager isn’t? Lady Bird is every one of our teenage selves as she navigates the pratfalls and emotional minefields of youth with all the grace (or lack thereof) that one might expect; and the raw, bumbling authenticity of her actions make her a far more sympathetic prospect than initially anticipated.

It’s a deeply flawed, deeply human depiction of teenage life and Lady Bird’s ultimate success as a wholly empathetic entity is thanks largely to Saoirse Ronan’s wonderful work with the character. Perky, spikey, quirky, but ultimately warm, caring, and vulnerable despite the ice-cool exterior; Ronan runs the gamut to offer a performance of depth and surprising fragility that feels naturally endearing.

For one so young, Ronan has consistently shown a level of class and maturity that belies her relative inexperience. It’s therefor something of a surprise to see her play against type as a brattish, self-righteous teenager so effectively, yet the actor’s innate joviality and effortless charisma allow Lady Bird to bloom; marking the character out as something far more nuanced than initial impressions suggest.

In terms of Lady Bird’s arc, there are no massive narrative surprises in store as she treads a well-worn, bumpy path through adolescence. Yet Ronan’s performance ensures we’re never less than one hundred percent engaged in her journey; together with all the angst, confusion, and bombast that go with it.

In the titular role, Ronan carries Lady Bird a long way, however, the film just wouldn’t be at the level it is without the talents of the extended cast, particularly the ever-reliable Laurie Metcalf. Playing the perfect foil to Lady Bird and one-half of perhaps the most awkwardly accurate onscreen mother-daughter relationship ever witnessed; Steppenwolf alum and former Rosanne star, Metcalf, walks the line between domineering, smothering, and loving with ease.

The overbearing mother role has been done to death in a thousand coming-of-age dramas, yet Metcalf offers something altogether deeper, natural, and ultimately heart-breaking in a performance that twists and turns from infuriating to tragic in the blink of an eye. The character’s writing and direction combine to allow Marion an agency all of her own, separate from her daughter’s whims; never allowing the overbearing mother role to lapse into cliché once.

As they banter and quarrel their way through Lady Bird’s senior year, it’s hard not to put yourself in the position of both mother and daughter, as empathy and allegiance flip-flops constantly between both characters. Reflective of Gerwig’s superbly nuanced and natural writing, as well as the natural chemistry between the actors; the on-screen kinship is simultaneously ice-cold, heart-warming, and startlingly genuine.

Truly symbiotic, it’s hard to imagine the two apart, yet their relationship appears so strained at times that they seem inches away from ripping one another to shreds at any moment. It’s not always easy watching, yet that’s the entire point.

Gerwig cuts close to the bone, but teenager-parent relationships are just that – raw and dangerously combustible. Who can honestly say they’ve not been on either side of that frustrating, antagonistic familial fence at some point? Ready and willing to burn the entire world to the ground just to make your point heard?

As someone who could in no way pass for female, I cannot attest first-hand to Lady Bird’s authenticity in its portrayal of the growing pains of an adolescent woman; however, the film’s quality is such that it’s easy to see just how spot on Gerwig has got it. The fraught maternal relations, the questionable partners, the awkward and unsatisfying first sexual encounters; these moments are universal, yet the film manages to distil the female teenage experience without ever feeling trite.

Key to this success is just how utterly genuine, heartfelt, and determined Gerwig is to present a quietly human journey of discovery and how effectively she boils the pain, humour, and scattergun emotion of teenage angst down to its raw state in order to make Lady Bird as personal and relatable as possible.

Thanks in no small part to Saoirse Ronan’s utterly endearing performance, Lady Bird is modest and relatable throughout; seemingly determined to avoid its plot distracting from the small, wonderfully calibrated vignettes that make up Lady Bird’s journey. At full steam, Gerwig’s film operates as a flick book of growing up and growing old; and while loose in structure, Lady Bird covertly weaves a number of pertinent social issues into its cool, indie bagginess.

Sexuality, family, growth, independence, religion, identity, politics, and the concept of home are all dealt with in Gerwig’s charming, effortlessly cool manner, through a delicate balance of levity and emotional nuance. There’s no preaching or soapboxing; this is a slice-of-life drama that perfectly encapsulates the stresses and concerns of growing up in a tumultuous, post-9/11 America without ever hammering you over the head with it.

Born and raised in Sacramento and taught at an all-girls Catholic school; it’s easy to see the links between the film and Gerwig’s own formative years. Lady Bird is essentially a love letter to her home and upbringing, with her clear affinity to the location and the subject shining through with every scene. However, while Lady Bird’s journey is a deeply personal one, it is deeply rooted in a number of universal truths.

In its purest form, Lady Bird is a film about the call of home. Of growing up longing to fly the nest; doing anything and everything you can to break free from the constraints of teachers, parents, and the town you perceive as holding you back, yet ultimately finding peace with your roots and the place that created us.

As Lady Bird spends large swathes of the film fighting tooth and nail to flee Sacramento for the culture and cool of the East Coast, it’s not long before she’s looking longingly back over her shoulder when she finally makes it out. Though the specifics will alter, this will be the contradictory journey for many of us as we fight to spread our wings, while simultaneously pining for home. Regardless of gender or demographic - in some way, shape, or form Lady Bird is all of us.

It’s incredible to think that this is Gerwig’s solo directorial debut but as a sweet, low-key love letter to her upbringing; the filmmaker’s simple, unfussy, and deeply human direction displays skills many seasoned pros would be kill for. As she lets the story flow and her snappy, pinpoint writing allows Lady Bird’s cast a platform to shine, Gerwig has created a deceptively simple coming-of-age masterpiece that lands in all the right ways.

Built around a charming and relatable performance by Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird elevates itself above a crowded genre. And, while Gerwig clearly isn’t concerned with breaking the coming-of-age mould, the director offers up her own unique perspective that’s both fresh and reassuringly familiar…especially for all those 30-somethings among us that found themselves on the precipice of adulthood as the millennium was just getting warmed up.