A well-made coming of age story Lady Bird takes an interesting look at the coming of age, parent-clash storyline. With well-established actors at the top of their game could this addition to a well-worn and frankly over-used Pantheon say anything new?

I have to be honest Lady Bird with all it is praise put me in mind of the Emperor’s New Clothes. It was good but I’ve seen it all before. I honestly feel that I was shown nothing new or anything that hasn’t been attempted before. This isn’t to say the efforts on display were bad, I’d say sadly just a bit ‘samey’ as a lot of other films.

Laurie Metcalf has rightly taken the plaudits as Lady Bird’s put-upon mother put other than this character, Lady Bird herself and her ‘best’ friend Julie, every other role, including Lady Bird’s dad, seems unwritten, almost unfinished, they drift in do what the story wants them to and drift out. In particular, the gay boyfriend seemed to be heading somewhere and then he more or less vanishes for a long stretch, shows up for a little scene and then is gone again.
In all honesty, it sounds as if hated Lady Bird. I did not. In fact like all Saoirse Ronan films, I enjoyed the acting and story. It is there was much I had seen before, the vulnerable dad, the overweight ‘unattractive’ friend, a troubled gay, the bitchy ‘cool’ clique. If I’m honest we’ve seen it all before, some better, some not so good. Lady Bird is interesting, sad, funny, well- made but in my view, it did not really say or show anything that has been before and many times too.

If you watch this you’ll probably enjoy it but for me, Edge of Seventeen was better.