Lady Bird (2017)

Greta Gerwig’s sweet and compassionate drama about a teenage girl’s coming of age in Sacramento, California. 

Saoirse Ronan plays Christine, a.k.a. Lady Bird, who has a complicated relationship with her mother (Laurie Metcalf) and indeed with herself. It’s beautifully observed, with moments of comedy and pathos. I was reminded of Woody Allen at his best. 

Beanie Feldstein is especially likeable as Lady Bird’s best friend Julie. 

The mother/daughter topic somehow recalls the Susan Sarandon/Natalie Portman pair-up in Anywhere but Here (1999), although this is a more nuanced and subtle treatment of that subject matter.

Manchester by the Sea (2016)

Heartbreaking drama about bereavement and grief. Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) is mourning his brother when he learns he’s been named as the guardian of his 16-year-old nephew Patrick (Lucas Hedges). But Lee has his own grief he never came to terms with – his children died in a house fire as a result of his own actions and his wife Randi (Michelle Williams) subsequently left him.

Told in partial flashback and set in bleak Maine winter scenery, it’s a desperately sad story with no easy answers about anything.

The acting is uniformly superb and the music, from Albinoni to Bob Dylan, is perfectly chosen for each scene. It’s masterful in its emotionally harrowing realism, but it’s not something to watch if you are feeling fragile.