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Pop Culture Happy Hour: The Glorious And Moving 'Lady Bird'

Saoirse Ronan stars as 'Lady Bird' in <em>Lady Bird</em>.
A24
Saoirse Ronan stars as 'Lady Bird' in Lady Bird.

Now and then, we can serve up an episode that consists of our panel joyfully explaining why we all truly were moved and thrilled by a piece of work. This is one of those weeks, as Aisha Harris of Slate's podcast Represent and music journalist Katie Presley join the panel to talk about Lady Bird.

Lady Bird is the directorial debut of Greta Gerwig, whom you probably know as an indie actress, and who also wrote the script. It tells the story of Lady Bird (name at birth: Christine), a senior at a Catholic high school in the fall of 2002 in Sacramento. Played by two-time Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan, she dreams of escaping to somewhere out east where they have culture, somewhere that her dreams can be more fully explored. For her, the major impediment is her mother (Laurie Metcalf), who has sacrificed a lot to send Lady Bird to private school and isn't afraid to remind her of that fact. Her father (Tracy Letts) loves both his wife and his daughter, and tries to support them both while going down his own tough path.

Lady Bird also meets boys in her senior year, played by Lucas Hedges and Timothee Chalamet, who are — in the way of high school romances — thrilling and disappointing in their own ways.

It's a terrific movie, and we thank Katie and Aisha for coming to talk to us about it.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Linda Holmes is a pop culture correspondent for NPR and the host of Pop Culture Happy Hour. She began her professional life as an attorney. In time, however, her affection for writing, popular culture, and the online universe eclipsed her legal ambitions. She shoved her law degree in the back of the closet, gave its living room space to DVD sets of The Wire, and never looked back.