There are laughs, there are thrills, there is pathos, and it all comes together about as well as one would expect. The problem is that when you started with so much, isn’t it fair to expect more?
There’s a world in which this movie is made without Saoirse Ronan and it’s not one I want to live in. She single-handedly takes Lady Bird from being a character I had no use for to one with just enough complexity to keep me engaged.