Death Race 2050, Lady Bird

G. J. Echternkamp's Death Race 2050 is a direct to video sequel to Paul Bartel's Death Race 2000 from 1975, both are iterations of Roger Corman's production principles. Echternkamp and his cohorts have wisely given the film a full comic book treatment. The visual feels is part video game, part The Perils of Penelope Pitstop. The film addresses our dystopian zeitgeist: Malcolm McDowell badly lampoons our President, the masses are lulled by video immersion and one female character quotes Pascal to another at the aptly named Bechdel Bar. The first third is a hoot, but like most Corman productions, Death Race 2050 runs out of steam and invention.

In contrast, Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig's first directorial feature, grows with assurance and multi-dimensionality as it progresses. Lady Bird is a memoir of Gerwig's senior year that pictures her yearning to leave provincial Sacramento for a more cosmopolitan collegiate sojourn. The performances are finely etched and Gerwig winningly portrays the bucolic lull of her hometown. Graceful tracking shots of faux Colonial homes and local haunts paint a picture that is both affectionate and gently satiric.

Saoirse Ronan is Lady Bird

Lady Bird also functions as a self-critique as the older Gerwig is not afraid to mock the self-absorption of her younger self. The clergy of Lady Bird's Catholic school are portrayed warmly even when the heroine disrupts an anti-abortion presentation. For Gerwig, the wisdom gained from experience tempers her presentation of her rebellious youth. She acknowledges mistreating her best female friend, a warm Beanie Feldstein, and regards her suitors with the retrospective knowledge that love is blind. More importantly, she has structured her film so that the emotional climax is given to her mother's character. Laurie Metcalf expertly embodies the mother in a warts and all fashion, so when she breaks down at her daughter's departure, the emotional release feels earned.

The self-critique continues in the coda where Lady Bird is shown repeating previous mistakes. Gerwig's experience has taught her that a change in scenery does not change character. She vividly recalls her youthful slips in a remembrance that is sweet in its affection for her hometown and former schoolmates, but rueful about experience. Saoirse Ronan is nonpareil, helping to make Lady Bird a superb debut from Ms. Gerwig. (3/10/18)