Before Barbie, Greta Gerwig arrived as a bold new cinematic voice with her solo writing-directing debut Lady Bird. Set in the quaint, suburban ennui of Gerwig’s 2002 Sacramento upbringing amidst the shifting economic mood of the times, the film follows Saoirse’s titular angsty teenage protagonist as she navigates a host of newly complicated relationships, with a new crush (Timothée Chalamet), her longstanding best friend (Beanie Feldstein) and most troublesome of all, her contentious bond with her opinionated mother (Laurie Metcalf). Mining fresh humor and pathos from its classic coming-of-age premise, Lady Bird soars beyond the genre to create a poignant tale of mothers and daughters, and a young woman on the cusp of adulthood. “I love it,” wrote the Chicago Tribune’s Michael Phillips. “If a more enchanted movie comes along this year, I’ll be surprised.”