Sometimes I can’t even believe Greta Gerwig is real. She has created and contributed to so many things that have impacted me so deeply. She is a writer, actor, and director, and her directing career really took off with her break out film Lady Bird, a semi-autobiographical story, starring Saoirse Ronan. Gerwig has made a place for herself in the indie world with films like Frances Ha, Hannah Takes The Stairs, Lola Versus, and Mistress America. A lot of her work has been done with Noah Baumbach, her partner, in which she usually co-writes.
Gerwig writes stories that are so uniquely her own in most ways. Even when she is playing a strange character plagued with insecurities or neuroses, I can still see pieces of her shining through at times. This is in no way a bad thing because she knows exactly how to balance it out and use it for the character.
This effervescence follows through into her directing too. Where she often directs actors to bring a little bit of their own personalities to their roles. There is a certain movement and musicality that she uses for her films. It’s infectious and seeps into the actors. Her films have an energy buzzing throughout them. Little Women is a perfect example. Visually, it is an absolutely stunning film. There is a particular scene with Jo (Saoirse Ronan) and Laurie (Timothée Chalomet) where they have just met and are outside on the porch of a house while a party resumes inside. They begin dancing and running down the porch, imitating the people inside once they reach the windows and then proceeding to wildly dance with reckless abandon when out of view of the windows. That scene, the dancing, is so unequivocally Greta Gerwig. My heart felt like it was going to burst when I first saw it because it was so electric, alive, and beautiful. Gerwig was shining through even then. The whole film is full of moments like that, and there are not enough words to describe how perfect Little Women is.
Both Lady Bird and Little Women have a richness to them, watching them feels like being enveloped in a warm hug. Gerwig even makes Sacramento, California with its flat, sun bleached sprawl seem like it could be beautiful in a way. Even though she has her reservations about it, shown through Lady Bird (Ronan), it’s also obvious that she will always have a soft spot for Sacramento.
Greta Gerwig is making films for people like me. She is creating strong female characters that I and many others can see parts of themselves in. It has been far too long of a wait for films like these. They are good for the soul. It’s hard to explain how much a film can lift you up while watching when it has the elements that Gerwig brings to it. It’s almost like coming up for air after being submerged in water. Her acting, writing, and directing all seem almost effortless, and I have spent many hours with her laughing and crying, sometimes both. I’m excited and elated for everything that this new step in Gerwig’s career will bring. She is slated to direct and co-write the live action Barbie that is to star Margot Robbie. It is undoubtedly going to be something wholly unlike anything that has ever been before, and I am more than ready for it.
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When I’m not busy daydreaming or having an existential crisis, I can usually be found watching a movie or TV, listening to music or a podcast, or with my nose in a book.
