I first watched Lady Bird when I was seventeen years old in 2018, a year after it first released. My first viewing was pretty memorable because I’d watched the entirety of the on my iPhone 8 on the upper floor of the church I’d grown up going to while waiting for my youngest sister to get out of a youth event. I thought it was pretty apt in the moment because of Christine (the main character) having grown up going to Catholic school. And while I wasn’t Catholic, there were just a lot of similarities in theme in my upbringing, having been surrounded by church for most of it. Along with that, I was quite literally the same age as Christine, and going through all of the moods and phases that were being displayed through her character in the film. We also even share the same MBTI and Enneagram type (ENFP 4w3), which might say a lot about the kind of person I am – or rather, was, in high school. I’d like to say I’ve matured since then – I hope I have. But anyways.

I have always been the type to be easily bored with my current situation and wish for something new and exciting to happen to me. I think I’m a bit less extreme about it now, but I definitely related to the way Christine would seek out trouble and drama for the sake of something interesting happening to her, because she actually had it pretty good in comparison to her peers. Of course, she had the typical, turbulent relationship with her mother that most teenage girls have at that age due to growing pains and seeking independence, but all-in-all, her life wasn’t half bad. I understood that on a deeper level at the time as someone who had been going through and experiencing quite literally the same thing. More often than not, the problems that arose in her life were a result of her own actions. She didn’t know how good she had it.

Christine generally led a lucky life – she was a good person at her core, but she was also selfish and spoiled, and I think that’s the whole point. And also exactly why I felt like I was looking into a mirror, whenever I watched it during my teenagehood. Her positive traits felt similar to my own, but so did the negative ones. We were both dumb adolescents who constantly thought the grass was greener on the other side, and didn’t know we were actually really lucky.

Throughout the movie, there’s a running bit surrounding where Christine lives, in the sense that she thinks she lives in the lesser part of town. She tells one of her love interests, Danny, that she’s “from the wrong side of the tracks”, as a joke—because she lives by actual train tracks, but also in a neighborhood she deems secondary than her classmates’, but also insinuating that she’s dangerous and/or mysterious, both as a joke and to come across as more interesting to him.

Funnily enough, I pulled a similar stunt to this (before having seen the film, believe it or not), telling people I was from “the wrong side of the tracks”, simply because I also lived right next to literal train tracks. I was completely unaware of the derogatory connotations attached to this idiom, and genuinely just thought it was a phrase that implied the person saying it was calling themselves mysterious, brooding, etc. (I was and am the total opposite of that, so it was obviously a joke whenever I said it.)

Like me, Christine doesn’t initially find anything with this statement, but when it comes up later, her mother is hurt and offended. Hearing her daughter casually dismiss their neighborhood as “the wrong side of the tracks” probably felt like a rejection of her efforts and a lack of appreciation for what they have. I can’t help but think that’s how my parents might have felt at the time, whenever I took our life for granted.

There’s a scene toward the end of the movie that I love, because it reminds me so much of my friends and I in high school. After ditching her loser prom date (sorry Timothée I love you…but your character was a real d-bag!), Christine arrives at her best friend Julie’s apartment to make amends after a short period of quarreling, and to convince her to attend prom. But upon opening the door, she finds her in her pajamas, and in tears. 

The film just feels like a love letter to the monotony that comes along with being a teenage girl, bored with life in the suburbs, the stupidity and selfishness that accompanies it, and the inevitable bad decisions she makes in an attempt to combat it. 

I think it’s safe to assume I’m a Superfan of this film. I mean i’s been sitting in my Letterboxd top 4 for as long as I’ve had my account (which is since like 2019) and it’s been a top favorite since I first saw it eight years ago. I definitely think it’s a movie that can only resonate with and be deeply understood by a specific audience, so I understand why it might not land for some, but I do think everyone should try watching at least once for its artistic value. I love this movie!!! YAY!!!!