Lady Bird: what age is it for? 17, alone or with a parent
From 17, alone or with a parent.
Official US rating: R. In France, zinema would say 13.
Alone, or with you
The official US rating is R, and we never go below it. Alone from 17, and not before, even with an adult.
The sweet spot: around 17, while you are living your own last year of school and the urge to leave. Why a sweet spot?
The trailer
What it's about
Lady Bird McPherson, a strong willed, deeply opinionated, artistic 17 year old comes of age in Sacramento. Her relationship with her mother and her upbringing are questioned and tested as she plans to head off to college.
Why 17
- The official rating, firstRated R in the US (restricted, under 17 requires an accompanying parent). zinema never goes below the country's rating: it explains it.rule
- A first time, shownThe heroine decides to have sex for the first time and the film shows it: short, deliberately awkward, followed by an embarrassed exchange about blood. Nothing is explicit, nothing is romantic either, and that is exactly the point.
- Sex is talked about constantlySex, virginity and bodies come up in nearly every conversation between the girls, in the blunt words of that age. It is the ordinary material of the film, not one isolated passage.
- The language of an angry teenagerTwenty-seven swear words in an hour and a half, and cutting remarks traded with her mother. The arguments are written to wound on both sides.
- The cigarettes and drink of first timesThere is a lot of smoking, drinking at parties, and drugs are named. These are filmed as rites of passage, without warning and without punishment.
- What gets said in passingA suicide attempt comes up in one line, an eating disorder in another, and one character goes through a depression. The film does not dwell, but a teenager who recognises themselves will feel it all at once.
What the movie brings
- It shows a teenager who is both exasperating and lovable, without ever condemning or excusing her.
- It puts words to clumsy love between a mother and daughter when neither knows how to go about it.
- It tells the shame of having parents poorer than everyone else's, and what that shame makes you say wrong.
Watching it together
You can say afterwards that the arguments in the film sound like yours, and ask what she would have wanted to hear instead.
at 17 and up
Do you think her mother loves her badly, or loves her as well as she can?
See the facts
For the same age, on zinema
- Borgen 17
- The Madison 17, 16 with a parent
- Suits 14
- The Good Wife 14
The latest guides
- Runner 13
- Un ours dans le Jura 13, 12 with a parent
- Vivre 13, 12 with a parent
- About Time 17
A zinema reading from September 24, 2026 · the whole movie, watched in full · the age by zinema's rules for the US and France, and a human reading · report an error · how this guide is made