"Lady Bird" (2017)

This movie is infuriating. Because they got the flavor of an irritating bygone era. And did it so well, you get not wistful but...annoyed how shitty we were.
The year is 2002 and Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson is a senior. All she wants to do is to get out of Sacramento, California. The midwest of California. For what reason? Because it can't harness her wanderlust. She is an average student to which all her advisors in the Catholic school she attends mock her tenacity to attend an east coast Ivy League school even though there is no way in hell this will happen. But her biggest obstacle is a mother who has lived her life stuck in Sacramento Hell. And now is saddled with this annoying girl who sidesteps her outspoken high school history.

The movie is...well, it's blah. If you like "Napoleon Dynamite" this has the same mundane living. The town is painted out to be oppressive to someone as expressive as Lady Bird. It drives her to want to leave. Though it paints a painful family dynamic between everyone involved, the real source of push and pull come from her mother Marion McPherson played wonderfully by Laurie Metcalf. What strikes me so honest about her character is...she doesn't tolerate shit from a daughter who is cunty. She gives a bit back. Which is where we realize where Millenials stem from. They have deep wanderlust but have no ambition. An odd dynamic. Because the frustration happens to also be the solution to their lack of purpose. This will be aggravating for anyone desperate to look for deeper meaning. There is none.

This movie is pretentious version of any 90's high school comedy. As my friend said after watching...he prefers the "American Pie" or "Can't Hardly Wait" after watching this. Simply, it is grim portrayal of high school as...clumsy relationships. Indifference to a point of wanting to shake them.
Former actor turned director Greta Gerwig gives a laser focus accuracy to this new high school while fine tuning the "look" of the era (it wasn't that long ago). She seems to paint living this life practically as if in another era. Where cell phones were introduced. And internet just began, The characters seem small town naive, yet...we're talking about the capital of California. It's the nature of all of us to want to go to what is less familar.
What I have a massive problem is...so what? Yes, the dreaded statement of why show this. The people this is aimed at won't give a flying fuck. The people who lived through it are watching through PTSD eyes. This is not a therapy moment anyone wants to go through. The performances are great, but it's still a question of...what is the purpose of this movie? The well-worn path of female high school confusion and uncertainty is shown at an arms distance since the character is so unlikeable. Maybe NOT unlikeable but there are a TON more complicated issues presented where the solution is wrapped up too pat. To me, this is cheapening a more revelatory moment. Which comes too late.
This is an annoying movie, yet...I still sense, as another friend had said, a worthy first effort.