7.9 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
The adventures of a young woman living in Northern California for a year.
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts, Lucas Hedges, Timothée ChalametDrama | 100% |
Coming of age | 42% |
Period | 27% |
Teen | 20% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
UV digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Turbulent mother - daughter relationships were pretty much inescapable for recent Academy Award voters in two of the so-called "major" categories, with both Actress and Supporting Actress nominees being culled from two films with just such a dysfunctional relationship at their core, Lady Bird and I, Tonya. I, Tonya was ostensibly based on “real life”, even if that reality could have probably been more accurately described as surreality, but Lady Bird is the brainchild of writer-director Greta Gerwig, now rather famously the subject of being singled out among “four men” when Emma Stone announced the Best Director nominees at the recent Oscar broadcast. While fictional, and therefore perhaps inherently allowed a little more leeway in terms of presentational style than something supposedly based on fact, Lady Bird has much of the same whimsy that has informed some other films Gerwig had a hand in writing, including Mistress America, another film featuring some “unique” female characters. Aside from the supposed "real life" vs. fictional element at play, there's another salient difference between the interpersonal dynamics between mother and daughter when comparing Lady Bird to I, Tonya, and that's in the simple fact that it's obvious that despite their obvious differences (which in large part actually spring from their similarities) Christine (Saoirse Ronan) and Marion McPherson (Laurie Metcalf) deeply care for one another.
Lady Bird is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. While this feature was digitally captured, it has been pretty aggressively tweaked in a number of ways, in an attempt to make what Gerwig has called in interviews and on the commentary included on this Blu-ray as a supplement "the look of memory". There are two interviews with Gerwig and director of photography Sam Levy which can be found here and here which I highly recommend to those interested in this film's rather unusual and pretty distinctive appearance. My favorite quote from Levy is that he didn't want "out of the box film grain", which is now going to be a mantra in my reviews (I'm joking, kind of). As can be seen in the screenshots accompanying this review, there is an at times pretty swarthy looking "grain field" swarming through the imagery, something that I found tended to actually mask detail levels at times, especially in the many dimly lit interior scenes. Perhaps even more interesting from a stylistic standpoint is the completely odd color grading employed (the previously linked interviews get into some of the choices on the part of the colorist). Weird, almost sickly, green and yellow tones predominate at times, which makes me wonder what Gerwig thinks "memory" should look like (that's another joke, kind of). All of this adds up to a truly unique viewing experience, but I have to say for me personally, it didn't really add anything meaningful to the story. Despite any qualms with stylistic choices, the disc offers no issues in terms of image instability or compression anomalies.
Lady Bird's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track gets an intermittent workout courtesy of scenes like the school musical or (more robustly) a party sequence, but a lot of the film tends to take place in the McPherson home environment, where typically only two characters are on screen simultaneously, something that keeps immersion limited to occasional ambient environmental sounds. Some of the school material has rather good surround activity, and some outdoor scenes also offer good placement of effects. Dialogue, score and effects are all rendered cleanly and clearly without any problems.
My hunch is my overall score for this and for the recently reviewed Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri both being 4.0 will raise some eyebrows, but, somewhat similarly to what I discussed with regard to the Frances McDormand vehicle, I found Lady Bird hugely enjoyable while I also questioned whether it's the "instant classic" some folks feel quite strongly it is. I loved the beautifully rendered mother - daughter relationship here, but a lot of the surrounding material struck me as a little rote, even if it's informed by Gerwig's typically very sharp writing. Lady Bird has a really unique visual style which may not be everyone's cup of tea, but this Blu-ray disc offers excellent technical merits one way or the other. Recommended.
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