Youthful: Lady Bird is a loving tribute to adolescence, portrayed through the lens of its titular main character.

Lady Bird is a beautiful ode to the coming-of-age genre because it’s one of its best, most respectful entries.

When her boyfriend Danny (Lucas Hedges) arrives at her house, high school student Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) is yet to appear. To explain her absence, Lady Bird’s brother, Miguel (Jordan Rodrigues), says she “wants to make an entrance. She’s mad we don’t have a spiral staircase.”

This scene lasts a little less than five minutes and yet it tells of one’s fantasies with haunting realism. And fantasies love the young.

For the 17-year-old Lady Bird — a name that Christine has always insisted she be called, and one that telegraphs rebellion — her fantasies aren’t many: Going to a school in New York, wishing that her mother would praise her choice of prom dress and losing her virginity in a way that she could perhaps tell her kids about.

Greta Gerwig wrote and directed the movie, Lady Bird. She took fragments of a girl’s adolescence, put them in a capsule and chucked them over to Sacramento, California — with care, with grace.

The film draws many of its strengths from Gerwig’s auteurist approach to the genre. She made a name for herself for her collaborations with director Noah Baumbach, namely the films Frances Ha and Mistress America.

She’s considered to be one of the filmmakers who spearheaded the genre known as “mumblecore”, in which conversations fly without theatrics, with naturalism its most-prized virtue. When given the opportunity, Gerwig’s conflicts are never earth-shattering or explosive.

And that’s why she imbues her first film — one that landed her two Oscar nominations (best director and best original screenplay) — with satisfying nuance.

Through Lady Bird, she retraces a journey of a teenager who, you know, wants out. Out of Sacramento. Out of a strained relationship with her mother. Out of a Catholic school where certain skirts are too short.

In a happier mood, she enjoys the mundane things, like hanging out with her best friend Julie (played by Beanie Feldstein) or even within the quiet suburbia of Sacramento. “It’s clear how much you love Sacramento,” Sister Sarah Joan, the principal of her Catholic school, remarks.

Set between 2002 and 2003, Lady Bird’s premise boils down to a search for identity. For Lady Bird, hers is tumultuous, but not too much. But guided by Gerwig’s direction, it feels pointedly realistic.

There’s a cadence to Gerwig’s dialogues, delivered with aplomb by virtually everybody in the movie. From Lady Bird’s father, Larry (Tracy Letts), brother (Jordan Rodrigues) and her temporary, more popular best friend, Jenna (Odeya Rush), the scenes and the dialogs are a shock to the genre’s system.

And it’s also because the little details that revolve around the side characters are also written with such care. Larry is depressed because he’s jobless. Danny apologizes and seeks consolation from Lady Bird after kissing a guy while they’re together because he’s afraid to come out as gay. Julie is heartbroken after being passed over by Lady Bird for someone more popular.

And Lady Bird is, well, Lady Bird. Her personality is all over the place. She does pass Julie over for someone more popular. She expects too much from her jerk of a boyfriend Kyle (Timothée Chalamet). She also loves her mother, although she’s sick of her sometimes.

Ronan is a marvel in this movie, perfectly portraying an American teenager with a charisma and realism that would make you mistake her for one (Ronan is neither an American nor a teenager).

You know who else is a marvel? The regal Laurie Metcalf, playing Lady Bird’s mother Marion. This is who Lady Bird is in constant fights with, the one that muddies her fantasies. In one of the film’s most revealing scenes, Lady Bird tries on a bunch of prom dresses. Marion chides her daughter’s dress. Her daughter’s not having it. “I want you to be the very best version of herself,” the mother says. “But what if this is the best version?” the daughter asks.

Lady Bird is an excellent movie. The smaller stakes count as much as the bigger ones. Lady Bird’s episodes in this film are a combination of the fantasies that you might have had then and the bittersweet memories of them that you have now.

— Photos courtesy of A24

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Lady Bird

(Scott Rudin Productions, Management 360, IAC Films; 93 minutes)

Director and writer: Greta Gerwig

Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Timothée Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein, Lucas Hedges, Lois Smith, Odeya Rush, Tracy Letts

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