Movies usually work as escapism. Very few of us will ever fall in love with a mer-man, so The Shape of Water is silver screen fantasy that we can use as a detour away from our boring existences. But every once in a while, we watch a movie that hits us so close to home, we wonder if the narrative picture is serving as a documentary feature of our upbringing, of our future... of our lives, in general. This apparently happened to Jessica Chastain as she watched Greta Gerwig's Oscar-nominated Lady Bird, as the Molly's Game star shared:
Jessica Chastain isn't too far off. The radiant and beautiful star was born in Sonoma, California, which is located a little over an hour's drive from Sacramento, the home of the scrappy and independent Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson (Saoirse Ronan). Chastain also was born in 1977, which would have put her into Lady Bird's time frame right around when the movie is set -- 2002. As the Zero Dark Thirty actress notes, she even lost her virginity to the same Dave Matthews Band song as Lady Bird does. Now, I know the band's album was BEYOND popular back then, but seeing this scene play out on screen had to be weird and déjà vu-y to Chastain!
Press play on this. It's an instant time-machine jump to your youth:
Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird is having the same effect that John Hughes' movies have on Children Of The Eighties (a group to which I proudly subscribe), where we might not have gone to the same lengths as Ferris (Matthew Broderick) to get a day off of school, but we recognized all of the conversations that those people had between their adventures. A fear of becoming an adult. The giddiness of being surrounded by friends. A curiosity of the mystery of one's future. All of these are brought up by Gerwig and her beautiful cast in Lady Bird, and we can see why it connects with audience's both normal and globally famous, like Jessica Chastain.
The actress later elaborated on her Twitter feed:
You can catch Lady Bird at a theater near you. The insightful and amusing dram-edy has been cleaning up on the awards circuit since November 2017, and recently added five Oscar nominations to its list of accolades. It will contend for Best Picture, Director (for Greta Gerwig), Screenplay, Actress (for Saiorse Ronan) and Supporting Actress (Laurie Metcalf) when the Oscars are handed out on March 4. Which category do you think it deserves?
