By: Alivia Rhodes and Katherine Friedman
On Sunday June 13, scholars once again gathered in Faculty Hall 208 to see another installment in the Classic Film Series. This week’s showing was of Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig’s coming of age film released September 1, 2017. The film seemed purposefully chosen to represent the time period in which GSP scholars themselves will soon live: the transition from high school to college where personal, academic, and relationship struggles are abundant.
The film follows Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson in her senior year of high school and depicts the struggles that come from her relationships with her mother, friends, and boyfriends. Lady Bird wants to leave her life in Sacramento, California, and her ticket out is college. Her mother, as well as several administrators in school, do not believe she can get into a good college, as her grades are subpar. However, Lady Bird is determined she will find herself a new beginning, telling her mother, “I want to go where culture is, like New York, or Connecticut, or New Hampshire.” She believes that Sacramento, where most of her peers would love to stay, is a prison where she is stuck in her house, with her family, surrounded by people who don’t understand her. This theme continues throughout most of the film, and is interwoven in arguments with her mother, a main focal point from the film’s beginning.
This mother-daughter dynamic was a close hit to home for many scholars and members of faculty; RA Heather and a scholar both commented on a specific scene in the film, when Lady Bird said to her mom, “I wish that you liked me,” to which her mother replied, “Of course I love you.” Lady Bird presses her mother, saying “But do you like me?” This moment highlights the difference between love and like, and how one can exist without the presence of the other.
Scholars both loved and liked Lady Bird. One scholar’s favorite scene was at the very end of the movie, when a parallel was drawn between Christine and her mother, who throughout the rest of the film seemed so divided by their differences. This scholar said they appreciated the color grading used in Lady Bird and that the movie was “pretty to watch.”
Edited by Josiah Self