One of my favorite films of the decade is Greta Gerwig’s 2017 coming-of-age tale Lady Bird. I connected with the main character’s single-gender Catholic high school experience, the financial instability of her middle-class upbringing and her love-hate relationship with her hometown of Sacramento, California.
In a scene where Lady Bird’s meeting with her vice principal Sister Sarah-Joan, that nun says to her, “I read your college essay. You clearly love Sacramento… you write about Sacramento so affectionately, and with such care… It comes across as love.” Over the course of the movie, Lady Bird was doing everything possible to leave the only town she’s ever known and get to an East Coast college despite her clear affection for Sacramento.