I just recommended this movie to a CC student poster because I thought it might be particularly interesting to them. The movie “Lady Bird” is Greta Gerwig’s autobiographical account of her high school senior year in Sacramento, CA. A major thread of the story is her college search. The movie opens as mother and daughter are just completing a long college road trip. I think the movie is a very compelling movie that portrays this part of her senior year in a thoughtful, touching, multifaceted, and potentially helpful way.
I would love to read what other CC parents and students think of the movie in relation to their own college search experience, or that of their kids.
(This is not a movie advertisement. I have no connection to the movie or anyone involved in its making or distribution. I just think it something potentially interesting and helpful to CC parents/students going through the college search process.)
It was a great movie (unless you live in Sacramento/went to UC Davis). But the message at the end (sorry for the spoiler!), when her parents remortgage their house in order to send her to her dream school in New York, is probably not a popular one with CC parents.
The other two college entrance related movies I’ve seen in the last couple of months which resonated with me were The History Boys (from 2006 but set in the 1980s close to where I grew up, bringing back memories of my school days) and Brad’s Status (which is new and will be on Amazon Prime next month) - ironically also picking on Sacramento as a place you go when you’ve “failed” in life.
I assumed that Lady Bird was full pay at NYU, since she had been wait listed. It’s inconceivable to me that any parent would borrow that much money to send a kid to his/her dream school. I think I liked Brad’s Status a little more.
Loved the movie, though very nervous about the message that a loving parent who had been laid off from work would refinance house in order to pay for the “dream” college.
I thought it was kind of boring. It seemed to me she just wanted to get away from home life in attending an east coast school. She didn’t seam to have any concrete plans, a direction or clear answers to why she wanted to leave Sacramento. She was also a little selfish knowing her families finances on wanting to go out of state.
She doesn’t end up attending NYU but Barnard, I believe. Also it takes place before 2008 and the big cuts to public college funding so her brother would be unlikely to have huge loans. He’d be seen as a disappointment for failure to launch despite huge potential.
I agree it’s a great film to go see with teenagers.
I didn’t focus at all on the finances per se but on the fact that the dad wanted to do everything possible to help her achieve her dream. She is smart and focused and I’m sure she will take full advantage of all NYC and her school (whatever one it is) has to offer. I didn’t think the financial stuff was meant to be taken literally.
I loved the movie. I thought the relationships between the characters were wonderful, and the movie showed how they all grew wiser and kinder as time went on.
I liked the movie a lot. I agree that the cost of going out of state was not actually a good choice given the parent’s financial situation. However, the movie was about people who, like pretty much all of us, have flaws. We make mistakes. We do our best to get on with life anyway.
I would have advised Lady Bird differently both in applications and enrollment. (If she wants the big city at an affordable price, apply to San Francisco State. If she wants to go to the most elite UC she can without being stuck close to home or going to a “cow school,” apply to Irvine and Santa Barbara.)
But (spoiler alert!) the whole movie is a realistic picture of a family making lots of mistakes. LB shouldn’t have jumped out of a moving car, Mom should have dialed back the critiques, LB shouldn’t have trusted Kyle…
A LOT of families go farther into hock than they should to pay for NYU (or wherever). That was just one more convincing detail in a movie full of them. It wouldn’t have been in character for those parents to hire me.
I thought the movie was kind of boring and overrated, and Lady Bird was flaky. I was not at all sympathetic about her having to attend UCD (the horror!), which is not much different in quality from NYU. It was mostly about her wanting to leave home and get away from her Mom. I did find it amusing that a Californian wanted to leave for school, while it seems many people from the rest of the country wants to pay the ridiculous OOS tuition at UC’s.
What bank would have approved a mortgage of that size ($300K) anyway for a family with a single income as a nurse? But it’s a movie.
Exactly. And why it rings true. Which is what I loved about the movie. Smart script. Made me tear up and made me laugh my head off. Very, very relatable. Even when my own family wasn’t as extreme as Lady Bird’s, it’s easy to see oneself and one’s family in many moments.
Go see it, @momofthreeboys. The Oscar nominating committee and the 99% critic approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes agrees with me that you should definitely watch it.
I enjoyed the movie, mostly because of its focus on relationships—especially between LB and her mother as well as others in her life—her brother, her BFF, the popular girl, etc. I didn’t really focus on whether the parents were being unwise financially—I thought they were folks just trying to support their daughter the best way they could.
I loved the scene where Mom and daughter go out together to do their Sunday de-stressing: going to open houses just to see beautiful homes that they could never afford. I’m not saying that I’ve EVER done that before, but something about that resonated with me…
