🎉 Happy Thursday! Just one more day until the weekend.
I know I said on Monday that I’d test out a three days a week format, but it’s my newsletter and I’m changing the rules. So, for the third day of our week dedicated to High School Comedies 🏫, I’m recommending one of my top ten movies of the decade.
Lady Bird
STREAMING ON PRIME VIDEO
What it’s about: Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) is a senior at a private Catholic high school in Sacramento, California who dreams of attending college in New York. We spend time with her as she hangs out with her supportive best friend Julie (Beanie Feldstein), argues with her loving but strict mother Marion (Laurie Metcalf), and crushes on not one but two boys (Timothée Chalamet and Lucas Hedges).
Why it’s great: On its surface, Lady Bird is a sharp and funny take on the classic high school comedy trope of a small town girl with dreams of being somewhere — and being someone — different. But look a little closer. Director/writer Greta Gerwig’s screenplay is anything but typical.
The movie is constructed as a series of vignettes following Lady Bird’s senior year. They’re seemingly random, but they all intentionally build towards the movie’s larger idea: not only are you the lead of your own movie, you’re also a supporting character in someone else’s. Throw in two perfect performances by Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf as a flawed but loving mother/daughter duo and you have what I consider a top ten movie of the decade.
The key players:
🎬🖋 Greta Gerwig
🎭 Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts, Lucas Hedges, Timothée Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein, Stephen McKinley Henderson
The details: ⏳ 94 minutes // 🇺🇸 U.S. // 📺 Trailer
Fun fact: The original script was 350 pages long, which would equate to a 6-hour movie. It’s surprising considering the final cut clocks in at just over 90 minutes.
Don’t have Prime Video? Lady Bird is available to buy or rent on Prime Video, iTunes, or Google Play.
In movie news:
📽 One venue at the Toronto International Film Festival refused to screen movies from Netflix or Amazon saying, “there are hundreds of fantastic films screening as part of this year’s festival, and with all those options, we asked that our screens feature titles from studios who understand and appreciate the importance of the theatrical release model.”
My take: Cannes made waves by disqualifying movies that weren’t given a theatrical release in France, leading to a swift backlash. And just this year, Roma became the first movie released by a streaming platform to be nominated for Best Picture — it lost in an upset to Green Book. It just shows that even though mainstream audiences are embracing streaming, the industry isn’t so quick to change their thinking.
A new trailer for Queen & Slim, directed by Melina Matsoukas and written by Lena Waithe, was released today. The movie stars Oscar-nominee Daniel Kaluuya and newcomer Jodie Turner-Smith
My take: While the Oscar race is largely taking shape at the fall film festivals, Queen & Slim is just the type of late season contender that could shake up the race.
One more day left of the week. You can do it!
Thanks for being here,
Karl (@karl_delo)