Amazon users have reason to rejoice: After Netflix already added the magnificent directorial debut of “Barbie” director Greta Gerwig to its lineup, Prime Video is now following suit.
For those who count coming-of-age films like “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” “Juno,” and “Easy A” among their favorite movies and have a Prime Video subscription instead of a Netflix one, there’s cause for celebration: “Lady Bird” is now available for streaming on Prime Video.
Netflix made the solo directorial debut of “Barbie” director Greta Gerwig available in mid-April, and her debut couldn’t have been more successful: The independent comedy was highly praised by critics, evidenced by its impressive 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Additionally, the film received five Oscar nominations in 2018, including for Best Original Screenplay and Best Director for Gerwig, Best Actress for Saoirse Ronan (“Little Women”), and Best Picture. Gerwig also brought Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet (“Dune 2”) together for the first time in “Lady Bird” before they appeared together again in their second film, “Little Women.”
You can already get a glimpse of “Lady Bird” from this trailer:
What is “Lady Bird” about? The story revolves around 17-year-old Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Saoirse Ronan), who is on the verge of graduating from high school. She is an outsider who, as she puts it, lives on the “wrong side of the tracks” in Sacramento, California. She lives with her parents and her brother in a house too small for them, where conflicts cannot be avoided. Her father was recently laid off from his job, forcing her mother Marion (Laura Metcalf) to work double shifts as a therapist in a psychiatric clinic to keep the family afloat.
Lady Bird feels trapped by this lower-middle-class life: She dreams of her future as a student in New York, her first great love, and other adventures she wishes for her life – which simply cannot be fulfilled in Sacramento. As is typical of rebellious teenagers, she not only clashes with her overwhelmed mother but also with her best friend Julie (Beanie Feldstein), her partner in the high school play, Danny (Lucas Hedges), and the mysterious bad boy Kyle (Timothée Chalamet). Through all of this, her existence seems even more hopeless than it already appears.
“Lady Bird” is semi-autobiographical, based on Gerwig’s own youth in Sacramento. Regarding how closely the film reflects her own experiences, the director said during the 2017 New York Film Festival (via IndieWire):
“Nothing in the movie literally happened in my life, but it has a truth at its core that resonates with what happened to me. I really wanted to make a movie that reflected on home and what home means and how leaving home defines what it is to you and how you love it. I felt like it was a love letter to Sacramento, and I thought, how do you make a love letter better than by having someone want to leave and then realize they love it?”
Why you should definitely watch “Lady Bird” “Lady Bird” is a magnificent coming-of-age film that will make you laugh a lot but also cry at times. The film has a certain realism that makes it incredibly tangible and provides a lot of potential for identification – particularly through the portrayal of complex relationships, such as those between Lady Bird and her mother or between Lady Bird and her best friend Julie. The film sensitively explores big dreams and self-discovery, especially because it reminds us to appreciate the people in our close circles who have been with us for a long time, even if it hasn’t always been completely harmonious.
After all, the film has a 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes for a reason! So you should definitely see “Lady Bird” for yourself. You can now stream the film on Prime Video and on Netflix, for example, with a subscription to MagentaTV. Thanks to a current offer, you’ll receive a Netflix Standard subscription with ads, RTL+ Premium, and more with your MagentaTV subscription. This offer is completely free of charge for the first six months.
