
When given the challenge of reviving a generational classic, Greta Gerwig called upon her faithful, dramatic compatriots (Saoirse Ronan and Timothee Chalamet) and broadened her incredible team (Laura Dern, Meryl Streep, Florence Pugh, Emma Watson, Eliza Scanlen, Bob Odenkirk, Chris Cooper, and more) to reinvigorate Little Women as we’ve never seen it before.
This film is a triumph in artistic vision and storytelling vigor. It’s a walk through the Musee d’Orsay; each scene is reminiscent of a famous painting. Each character is a Pinterest board of fresh takes and favorite moments from classic renditions of these films, all adaptations of the beloved novel by Louisa May Alcott.
But this is Gerwig’s finest chess move. She plants author’s DNA into the main character. Jo March is a strong, verbose, witty, lively heroine confined to the constraints of an era in which women were doomed to demure domesticity. She was a writer and a visionary. Like Alcott. Like Gerwig. So her characters investigate the struggles of home-life in a time of civil war, when money is king yet scarce, and when imagination and family bonding provide rare escape from discouragement. 

Loss determines destiny for most, but strength of spirit and courage of will allow the March women to rise above all.
Don’t miss this newly deemed classic. It’s pretty nearly perfect.
Tag: Saoirse Ronan
LADY BIRD (2017) movie review
Senior year at her Catholic school, a girl with abnormal charisma and confidence changes her name and takes on her toughest critic: her mother.
Everyone wants to be loved. This film speaks to the soul of the everyday, normal, individual you that doesn’t feel approved of, noticed, or truly seen. Her issues resonate because in some ways they are universal.
This film is a conversation being picked up, spun round, remembered and circled back to. Scenes and dialogue cut and jog but somehow maintain fluidity, grace, and humor.
The early 2000’s, Dave Matthews’ “Crash,” neutral and dark oversized shirts, Kool-aid dyed hair, thrift shopping for prom gowns, and high school musicals make every moment hilarious and true. It’s almost a little too close to home.
From the opening scene listening to books on tape in the car with her mother to sneaking communion wafers with her best friend, this is all real. It’s about hope and finding satisfaction in yourself and in the family you were born into, and learning to love and pay attention to both for the broken wonderful things that they are. Because after all, in the end maybe loving and paying attention are the same thing.
BROOKLYN (2015) movie review
Let’s call Brooklyn an immigration story in paced profundity. One Irish girl on a quest for confidence and identity takes the voyage across the sea and offers a walking tour of the old city where kindness greets her on every corner.
Oscar nominated Saoirse Ronan plays staunch, teary Eilis on her way to America. From glum to gadabout, she must choose to define home for herself. Both she and this film remain almost static: a pleasant and pensive thoughtful saunter to and from Ireland .
All of the brave souls who cross seas and continents to start afresh meet with root-shaking challenges and must choose which road truly leads home.
