Greta Gerwig’s marvelous and Oscar bound “Lady Bird” bested Ron Reiner’s “LBJ” this weekend. It’s a victory, not really, of sorts, for Lady Bird Johnson, the first lady from 1963 to 1969 and wife of President Lyndon Johnson.
Unfortunately, Gerwig’s movie is not about the former First Lady, who was famous for making America stop littering while her husband was promoting civil rights and digging us deep into the Vietnam War.
“Lady Bird” is the nickname of Gerwig’s main character, a 17 year old played by Saorise Ronan who is as endearing and charming as could be possible on film– a modern, younger Annie Hall. The movie opened in limited release and has made $375,000 in just four theaters. The Reiner movie, in 500 theaters, made less than a million dollars.
But oh, that headline is a nice one. The real Lady Bird is smiling in heaven regardless.
“Thor” made something like 9 billion dollars and added absolutely nothing to the canon of movies or cinema. But everyone involved got rich, and kids had a good time.
