In ‘Lady Bird,’ Home Is Where the Heart Is
The Oscar-nominated film puts Sacramento, California, in the spotlight and celebrates the hometown ties that bind
When you grow up in Sacramento, California, as I did, you don’t expect to see your childhood, and your childhood haunts, portrayed on the big screen. All that changed when Sacramento native Greta Gerwig made the city a character in her 2017 solo directorial debut, Lady Bird. “I wanted to make a love letter to Sacramento as seen through the eyes of someone who can’t appreciate how beautiful it is until she’s going away to someplace else,” Gerwig told the Sacramento Bee.
Gerwig’s semiautobiographical coming-of-age story, about a girl in her senior year at a Catholic high school, draws on elements of her childhood that mirror some of my own and that have resonated with audiences nationwide. Her tender, humorous and bittersweet film made me laugh in recognition and brought tears to my eyes for the nostalgia it evoked. The movie is nominated for five Academy Awards.
Gerwig’s semiautobiographical coming-of-age story, about a girl in her senior year at a Catholic high school, draws on elements of her childhood that mirror some of my own and that have resonated with audiences nationwide. Her tender, humorous and bittersweet film made me laugh in recognition and brought tears to my eyes for the nostalgia it evoked. The movie is nominated for five Academy Awards.
Director of photography Sam Levy and director-screenwriter Greta Gerwig on the set of “Lady Bird.”
Gerwig’s attention to the details of place and time, and the specificity of her characters, have given her movie universal appeal. Critics have lavished praise on Lady Bird, audiences nationwide have embraced it, and the low-budget indie has grossed nearly $50 million to date. The film has picked up numerous awards this year, and on Sunday, March 4, it will compete for Oscars in the categories of best picture, director, original screenplay, actress (Saoirse Ronan) and supporting actress (Laurie Metcalf).
Sacramento also has embraced the movie, which is being shown there at the Tower Theatre. One company has launched Lady Bird-themed walking and running tours to highlight local spots associated with the movie. (Gerwig shot some scenes in Southern California and New York.)
Gerwig’s attention to the details of place and time, and the specificity of her characters, have given her movie universal appeal. Critics have lavished praise on Lady Bird, audiences nationwide have embraced it, and the low-budget indie has grossed nearly $50 million to date. The film has picked up numerous awards this year, and on Sunday, March 4, it will compete for Oscars in the categories of best picture, director, original screenplay, actress (Saoirse Ronan) and supporting actress (Laurie Metcalf).
Sacramento also has embraced the movie, which is being shown there at the Tower Theatre. One company has launched Lady Bird-themed walking and running tours to highlight local spots associated with the movie. (Gerwig shot some scenes in Southern California and New York.)
The movie gets so much about Sacramento exactly right, including the role that the Fabulous 40s neighborhood plays in the city’s imagination.
The well-to-do East Sac neighborhood of sprawling Colonial Revival, Tudor, Mediterranean and Craftsman houses custom-built in the early to mid-20th century is where many of the city’s affluent and influential families live. To some who reside in more modest homes but attend school or work with those who live there, it can seem a world of parties and privilege.
That’s how it seems to Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Ronan), above left, and her best friend, Julie (Beanie Feldstein), above right, who in this scene are walking through the Fab 40s neighborhood in their school uniforms, gazing at the homes and imagining how wonderful their lives would be if they lived there. Lady Bird’s family lives in a small ranch house where five people share a bathroom. Julie and her mom live in a nondescript apartment. The elegant houses in this neighborhood seem like heaven in comparison.
The girls stop in front of a blue Colonial-style home with an expansive front lawn. “If I lived here I would definitely have my wedding in the backyard,” Julie says. Lady Bird says: “I’d have friends over all the time to study and eat snacks. I’d be like, ‘Mom, we’re taking the snacks upstairs to the TV room.’” “I’d have my own bathroom,” Julie adds.
The well-to-do East Sac neighborhood of sprawling Colonial Revival, Tudor, Mediterranean and Craftsman houses custom-built in the early to mid-20th century is where many of the city’s affluent and influential families live. To some who reside in more modest homes but attend school or work with those who live there, it can seem a world of parties and privilege.
That’s how it seems to Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Ronan), above left, and her best friend, Julie (Beanie Feldstein), above right, who in this scene are walking through the Fab 40s neighborhood in their school uniforms, gazing at the homes and imagining how wonderful their lives would be if they lived there. Lady Bird’s family lives in a small ranch house where five people share a bathroom. Julie and her mom live in a nondescript apartment. The elegant houses in this neighborhood seem like heaven in comparison.
The girls stop in front of a blue Colonial-style home with an expansive front lawn. “If I lived here I would definitely have my wedding in the backyard,” Julie says. Lady Bird says: “I’d have friends over all the time to study and eat snacks. I’d be like, ‘Mom, we’re taking the snacks upstairs to the TV room.’” “I’d have my own bathroom,” Julie adds.
The 1935 house, above, shows up again when Lady Bird joins her new boyfriend, Danny (Lucas Hedges), for Thanksgiving dinner with his family. Lady Bird is astonished to learn (spoiler alert) that his grandmother lives in the home. Suddenly the magical world that once seemed out of reach is within her grasp. That night she brags with comic exaggeration to Julie that the house someday could be hers. Later, with a wealthy new friend, her imagination and her desire to be accepted take her a step too far.
Still, Lady Bird is starting to get hints that this dream world may not be exactly what she imagined. She tells Danny’s grandmother that her house is her favorite in East Sacramento. She then spots a framed “Reagan Country” poster on the wall and wonders if it’s a joke. (In real life, the house, at 1224 44th St., is a block from the Reagan-era governor’s mansion.) Lady Bird eventually learns that Danny has his own struggles. And, at another stately house where she spends time with a boy, she finds unexpected sadness.
Still, Lady Bird is starting to get hints that this dream world may not be exactly what she imagined. She tells Danny’s grandmother that her house is her favorite in East Sacramento. She then spots a framed “Reagan Country” poster on the wall and wonders if it’s a joke. (In real life, the house, at 1224 44th St., is a block from the Reagan-era governor’s mansion.) Lady Bird eventually learns that Danny has his own struggles. And, at another stately house where she spends time with a boy, she finds unexpected sadness.
Photo by Merrick Morton
Though a beautiful home may not inoculate you from all of life’s struggles, it certainly can provide pleasure. When Lady Bird’s mother, Marion (Metcalf, pictured above), a psychiatric nurse, picks her daughter up from the boy’s home, she sees how distraught she is and consoles her with an offer: “You want to do our favorite Sunday activity?” Lady Bird dries her eyes and nods. It’s time to tour open houses.
Soon the two of them are walking up the wide front porch steps of a large house and meeting a real estate agent in the foyer. They walk through beautifully appointed rooms with gleaming hardwood floors and antique wood furniture polished to a high sheen. In an inviting kitchen, they gaze out the windows of a sunny breakfast nook as if the home were their own. Mother and daughter bond over aspirational real estate, and life is good again.
The McPhersons’ own kitchen, pictured above, is unimproved and showing its age. Their bathroom is a sea of pink tile.
Though a beautiful home may not inoculate you from all of life’s struggles, it certainly can provide pleasure. When Lady Bird’s mother, Marion (Metcalf, pictured above), a psychiatric nurse, picks her daughter up from the boy’s home, she sees how distraught she is and consoles her with an offer: “You want to do our favorite Sunday activity?” Lady Bird dries her eyes and nods. It’s time to tour open houses.
Soon the two of them are walking up the wide front porch steps of a large house and meeting a real estate agent in the foyer. They walk through beautifully appointed rooms with gleaming hardwood floors and antique wood furniture polished to a high sheen. In an inviting kitchen, they gaze out the windows of a sunny breakfast nook as if the home were their own. Mother and daughter bond over aspirational real estate, and life is good again.
The McPhersons’ own kitchen, pictured above, is unimproved and showing its age. Their bathroom is a sea of pink tile.
Director-writer Gerwig has described her movie as being about what home means, and how difficult it is to see it clearly when you’re there. With Lady Bird, the now-New Yorker has shown that if she didn’t see her hometown before, she definitely does now. And she’s letting the rest of the world see it too.
Tell us: Has your perception of your hometown changed with time? Do you ever visit open houses just for fun? Share your thoughts in the Comments!
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Tell us: Has your perception of your hometown changed with time? Do you ever visit open houses just for fun? Share your thoughts in the Comments!
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The Villa From an Oscar-Nominated Film Can Be Yours
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Watching Lady Bird was a strange and exhilarating experience. There was my hometown, shot in loving detail: the tree-lined streets of East Sacramento, the rose garden at McKinley Park, the neon-topped Tower Theatre, Cookie’s Drive In, the Pasty Shack, the meandering Sacramento and American rivers, the H Street Bridge and, just outside the city limits, the farmland that stretches to the horizon.
And there were the details of my teen years: the school theater productions and prom night, the Masses and assemblies, the joys and angst of relationships and family life, the reminders of wealth and class (hello, house envy) and the yearning to leave Sacramento behind for a more exciting world.