CRITICS ARE FALLING over themselves to praise Saoirse Ronan’s ‘astonishing’ performance in Lady Bird, which came out in the US over the weekend.

Empire Empire

The film was written and directed by actress Greta Gerwig – it’s her first foray behind the camera after starring in indies like Frances Ha and 21st Century Women.

Saoirse plays the titular character, a young woman eager to escape her mother (played by Laurie Metcalf) and hometown by going to college in New York. From the trailer, it’s clear that this is not the idealised portrayal of teenage life we see so often on screen:

The film rushed to the top of the box office charts after debuting over the weekend, and has received a rapturous response from audiences and critics alike.

It now has a perfect 100% Certified Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, which collects film reviews from the world’s top film journalists:

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes

So what have they been saying about Lady Bird, and Ronan’s performance in particular? Here’s the LA Times:

Yet another astonishing performance by star Saoirse Ronan… [She's] turned herself so completely into a Sacramento teenager circa 2002 it almost seems like witchcraft.

The New York Times:

[Lady Bird is} played with daunting, dauntless precision by Saoirse Ronan (already, at 23, one of the most formidable actors in movies today).

And Pete Travers of Rolling Stone:

A miracle of an actress... With her expert comic timing and nuanced dramatic shading, she is, quite simply, astonishing. The actress lets us into the mind and heart of Lady Bird, right down to her frayed nerve endings.

Annoyingly, the film doesn't come out in Ireland until February of next year, by which time it'll hopefully have seen a few big award nominations. We can hardly wait.

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