Grant Conversano’s review published on Letterboxd:
"I'm sorry I wanted more" these words from Greta Gerwig's directorial debut have left me haunted me and sleepless. Exactly one year after the world premiere of "Moonlight", I find myself in the Chuck Jones Theater at Telluride, alone in room full of legends.
Barry Jenkins takes the stage to introduce "Lady Bird" and he tells the story of when he first met Greta, he was broke on the festival circuit in 2008 with his first feature "Medicine for Melancholy". He was in South America, hanging out with UNCSA alumni Aaron Katz, two young hunger directors in every sense of the word, and here comes Greta, she had already become a star in the micro low budget indie world. She approached them with a bag full of pesos the festival gave her. She took them out to dinner and now here we are 9 years later.
At first it is hard to imagine that these people I admire so much were ever broke, that they were ever young, or had any doubts about arriving at the moment that we are in now. That's what happens when you see someone on a stage. It's very easy to forget how they got there, but when you watch "Moonlight" and "Lady Bird" the undeniable truth emerges, these films are deeply personal tales that could not have been made if these filmmakers did not live those moment themselves.
"I'm sorry I wanted more"
In a middle class family, far from fame, Christine McPherson creates this name for herself Lady Bird. She seeks a home she cannot seem to find in Sacramento and when she finally makes it to New York she realizes that she brought it with her across the country, she cannot deny her true home no matter how far she goes.
I cannot speak for anyone else, but I found this film so moving because It is the story I am living right now, it is the story of my middle class family, my worried mother, my depressed father, my small town roots, my own desire for something greater, and the damage that ambition can bring.
All the things that the character Lady Bird is chasing are the same things I have been searching for myself, and that search led me to the first ever screening of this film on top of a mountain in Colorado with these extraordinary filmmakers. At this moment I'm not sure what to make of it, but it does not feel like chance.