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Lady Bird Soars

The hunt for a worthy creative heir to 80s teen comedy titan John Hughes may have led to an unlikely contender: Greta Gerwig. The actress, who was a breakout in 2006's mumblecore comedy "Hannah Takes the Stairs," makes her directorial debut with "Lady Bird," a shrewd, funny, sharply heartfelt tale of the adolescent search for identity. It pairs as mother and daughter the admirably accomplished Saoirse Ronan ("Brooklyn"), already a seasoned leading lady at the ripe old age of 23, and veteran actress Laurie Metcalf, a stellar performer on stage (in the original Broadway productions of "Misery" and "A Doll's House Part 2") and the small screen (Roseanne, The McCarthys).

Ms. Metcalf is less well known for her film work, but that is bound to change with her role as Marion McPherson, mother of the feisty Christine, who pointedly dubs herself Lady Bird as part of a voyage of self-discovery that's a rite of passage for all teenagers. This coming of age tale focuses on the mother-daughter relationship against a backdrop of northern California in the early aughts, and the drab surroundings provide a perfect foil for Lady Bird's colorful, often drama-laden inner life.

"Lady Bird" mines some fairly standard teen comedy material: senior year angst, meeting the new boyfriend's family, questionable fashion choices, the aforementioned power struggles with mom, and the excitement of being cast in the big school play - it even taps a go-to sitcom trope that has the befuddled school football coach heading up the drama program and issuing stage direction via hoary sports metaphors. But Ms. Gerwig's script approaches these beats with a daring forthrightness and a go-for-broke sensibility that yields big laughs, though never at her characters' expense.

This rocket of a comedy announces its intentions up front with a car trip where an innocuous conversation between Marion and Lady Bird suddenly turns tense, and the fed up and frustrated teen pitches herself out the door and onto the pavement. It's shockingly unexpected, but a perfect harbinger of her character, and the movie is brave enough not to pull the punch. Other films might back down and reframe it as a wishful thinking daydream; in "Lady Bird's" subsequent scenes, our heroine is sporting a day-glo pink arm cast.

As funny as "Lady Bird" is, it doesn't stint on the drama. The McPherson family struggles on a number of fronts, both economical and emotional, and these factors are woven into every facet of the story, from Lady Bird's touching relationship with her father to the motivation behind a lie to her popular new school friend that eventually spirals out of control. Ms. Ronan ably navigates the humor and the heartbreak, and she's surrounded by a uniformly excellent cast. But it's the realistic chemistry between Ms. Ronan and Ms. Metcalf that forms the center of the film and yields its most memorably bittersweet moments. This one's a keeper: it's an audacious mix of comedy and drama without a single false note, and it bodes well for what will hopefully be Ms. Gerwig's burgeoning career behind the camera.