The Film (4/5)

    Greta Gerwig first stumbled on to my cinematic map with Frances Ha, a film she had co-written with her partner Noah Baumbach, and he directed. The film visually was inspired by the French New Wave directors such as Francois Truffaut, Eric Rohmer, and Jean-Luc Godard, but the film was all Gerwig, from her wonderful lead performance, down to the writing which was informed seemingly from her personal experience growing up in Sacramento, and living in New York.

    Lady Bird is the 2nd directorial feature from Gerwig after co-directing the 2008 Nights and Weekends with Joe Swanberg, and feels like it could easily act as prequel to the earlier Frances Ha. Like the Baumbach picture, Lady Bird feels more than a tad biographical, and more like a series of vignettes then a straight cohesive narrative. Yet, the overall flows beautifully to reflect the life of teenager Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson. 

     The film opens in a hotel room, with Lady Bird and her Mother, Marion (Laurie Metcalf, in what could be her finest performance) packing up after a college road trip.  The pair would end up arguing on the way back, so much so that Lady Bird would jump from the car breaking her wrist in the process. The movie focuses on the senior year of Lady Bird, her relationships with friends, and a pair of boys she meets, but mainly it focuses on the relationship she has with her Mother. Marion is struggling both living with her teenage daughter, and coming to terms with the fact that her daughter is soon departing, and possibly further away that she pictures.

    The common consensus among writers is to write what you know, and Greta Gerwig has done just that across both Frances Ha and now Lady Bird. You can feel the authenticity in both the writing, and the way she shoots the Sacramento landscapes. The performances across the board are magnificent, and give the characters a truly lived in feel.  Of course, the dialogue has a blend of dramatic realism, but not so much so that the film feels overly serious, as such there are many humorous flourishes  throughout that help offer the film quite a level of rewatchability.

Audio/Video (4/5)

    Lady Bird is presented by Lionsgate in a 1:85:1 1080p AVC encoded transfer that accurately reflects the overall look of the film, detail is mostly fine, colors are well reproduced throughout the presentation and blacks are nice and deep.

    Audio is handled by a DTS-HD MA 5.1 track in English. The track is suitable and conveys the dialogue and score quite well.

Extras (2/5)

   We have a fairly informative commentary with director Gerwig and cinematographer Sam Levy. There is also a fairly light 15 minute BTS documentary.

Overall

    Lady Bird is quite a solid piece of slice of life cinema, that would make an excellent companion to the Gerwig scripted, Noah Baumbach directed Frances Ha. The Blu-ray looks and sounds quite decent, but is limited as far as extras are concerned, RECOMMENDED.