FLY AWAY HOME - My Review of LADY BIRD (4 Stars) Oftentimes, actors make really great directors because of the work they get out of their cast. Not all of them have a great visual sense, but the performance quality may make up for it. It's rare that a filmmaker comes from the acting pool who is the entire package, someone who speaks in the rhythms of cinematic storytelling, someone who knows just where to put the camera, how to use editing to enhance a mood, and make music choices to work perfectly in sync with the people on the screen. With LADY BIRD her debut feature as writer/director, acclaimed indie actor Greta Gerwig (FRANCES HA, 20TH CENTURY WOMEN), we have what I think is the best directorial debut by a performer since John Cameron Mitchell's HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH from 2001, and her film is easily one of the best pictures of 2017. First off, for everyone confused by the title, it is NOT a biopic about a former First Lady. LADY BIRD tells the story of Christine 'Lady Bird' McPherson (the incredible Saoirse Ronan), who, in 2002, faces her graduation from Catholic High School. An intensely confident person, Lady Bird dreams of fleeing the nest and escaping the mundanity of Sacramento for college somewhere on the east coast. She and her best friend Julie (Jonah Hill's scene-stealing younger sister Beanie Feldstein) exist on the outcast spectrum of students, munching on Communion Wafers and cracking each other up with talks of masturbation, boys, and popular girls such as Queen Bee Jenna Walton (a wonderfully dead-eyed Odeya Rush). At home, she's stifled by her intensely controlling mother Marion (a never better Laurie Metcalf), who works as a Mental Health Nurse and is married to Larry (Tracie Letts), a depressed, unemployed but kind husband. He may be best known as the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of AUGUST, OSAGE COUNTY, but film after film has me convinced that he's an even better actor. Nobody mixes deadpan and anger together so seamlessly as Letts. The film sets up the central relationship of mother and daughter so perfectly in its opening scene as they return home from a college tour. Lady Bird worries that people can tell she's from Sacramento, which she calls "the Midwest of California". They argue about work ethic, which leads to a shocking yet hilarious end to the scene. There's so much resentment, anger, and yet, true care on display, all of which will find their way into the rest of the story. Although on the surface, this can be described as your typical coming-of-age story, it's the tone, the writing, the performances, the direction, and the mother-daughter bond that sets it apart. There's a reason the film begins with a quote from Joan Didion, who like Gerwig, hails from Sacramento. It reads, "Anybody who talks about California hedonism has never spent a Christmas in Sacramento." With that, we know this film will have something more on its mind than boobs and drunken nights, although they do play a part here as well! It's really, though, perhaps the best depiction of a parent/child relationship with all of its conflicting emotions butted up against each other, since TERMS OF ENDEARMENT. A scene where they argue in a thrift shop only to come together over the perfect dress illustrates this point wonderfully. By emphasizing the prickly bond between Ronan and Metcalf, Gerwig upends the tropes often seen in high school stories. Oftentimes, these tales are about the girl getting the guy. Here, that's represented by Lucas Hedges as Danny, who Lady Bird crushes on as they both get cast in the Drama Club presentation of "Merrily We Roll Along". Hedges, so good in MANCHESTER BY THE SEA, shines again as a quirky, shy guy who bit by bit has his own journey of discovery. He's also incredible at melt-downs. In MANCHESTER, he broke my heart when he cried at the refrigerator, and here he does it again in a profoundly moving scene with Ronan. It travels a course from anger to forgiveness with such sly precision. It's a perfect little gem of a scene. She also falls for the sullen, pretentious musician Kyle (Timothée Chalamet, of the upcoming CALL ME BY MY NAME), and it's to the movie's credit that these relationships serve to help Lady Bird figure out who she is and what she wants to be, but they don't define her. She's gonna meet other guys. She'll have a few failed relationships, but she'll incorporate them just as she does with the sights, smells and sounds of the hometown she can't wait to escape but may some day learn to appreciate. Her last year in school carries a lot of the humor in the film, from her run-ins with a strict but caring Nun (Lois Smith, who has done great work in 2017) to the oddity of her drama teacher (August Wilson acting legend, Stephen McKinley Henderson). Much is presented in breezy montages that don't have that cheap, lazy storytelling quality we're so accustomed to getting. Instead, they're complex, rhythmically odd with interesting vocal pre-laps and lovely musical accompaniment by the great Jon Brion. The story often unfolds like a gorgeous, sun-kissed memory piece. I also loved the scene in which Ronan and her peers listen to a guest speaker (THE COMEBACK'S fantastic Bayne Gibby) extol on the evils of abortion. Ronan's response to her gives us perhaps the funniest line of the film, making this my favorite school assembly scene since the one in ELECTION. A special mention must be made of the editing, courtesy of Nick Houy, who doesn't have a lot of credits, but counts the magnificent THE NIGHT OF as one of them. Greta Gerwig's public persona oozes quirkiness, and her distinctive voice can be felt in every frame of this film. While Ronan channels her so well while creating a character all her own, the editing seems so in tune to Gerwig's aesthetic. Scenes begin and end in some very original places, honoring the intelligence of the audience. The last moment of the film in particular excited me by cutting to black at a really unsettled moment. I thought of SAY ANYTHING, and how we wait for the airplane's seatbelt sign to ding, which served as the moment of comfort for our main characters. In LADY BIRD, Houy and Gerwig chose to cut to black on Ronan's inhale of breath. Watch for it yourself and see how it makes you feel something you might not have expected. I also really loved the cinematography by frequent Noah Baumbach collaborator, Sam Levy. This is a small indie, but the camera placement, the golden hues and the cool blues add up to a look that's just right for this movie. The actors feel so comfortable on camera, making this a joy to watch from beginning to end. Gerwig maintains that there was no improvising on her set, and with a script this specific and well-realized, there doesn't seem to be a need. She subverts your expectations time after time. An airport scene, which has the potential to line up every cliche in the book, surprises you with its bittersweet outcome. Same goes for the twists and turns Lady Bird goes through with her best friend. Nothing got under my skin more, however, than a scene at the kitchen sink, with Metcalf's back to the camera as Ronan begs for her mom to talk to her. This movie grabbed me when I least expected it to do so. It's with this attention to the writing, editing and cinematography that Gerwig, for me, establishes herself as a formidable filmmaker. I was fortunate enough to hear her speak on this after the screening I attended, and I've never heard a director articulate their vision so well as she has. I can't wait to see what she does next, because Greta Gerwig is the real deal. So is this lovely, memorable, beautiful film.