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Sean Kennedy's avatar

Where do we discuss the stated goal in the opening scene of moving to someplace with culture? Her goal is to get out of Sacramento. I casually understood the boys in the film to be.... I don't.. not as important.

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Bruce Hutchinson's avatar

Totally valid point. Carlie and I discussed the external goal a lot, and I couldn't really argue with you if you said the external was to leave Sacramento. However, when you look at the scenes and the structure, the goal of leaving doesn't really drive that many scenes because it's not a very strong or active goal (though the scenes it does drive are clearly important to the story, like the "How much?" scene). But a lot of scenes do revolve around Lady Bird's pursuit of a boyfriend (Danny and Kyle) and the repercussions of that pursuit (from Danny coming out, to Lady Bird sacrificing her friendship with Julie for Jenna to be closer to Kyle and his group). And the big climaxes definitely revolve around the boys (catching Danny in the bathroom and her loss of virginity to Kyle). While she may not state, "I want a boyfriend", that goal is ever present, at least until the final act, when the internal goal takes over and she begins to figure out who she is and what's important (and it turns out leaving Sacramento wasn't as important as she once thought). I hope that gives you some insight into our thinking--and thanks for commenting!

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Natalie's avatar

What about her goal of going to college far away? That was a huge part of the movie

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Bruce Hutchinson's avatar

Hey Natalie! That's a good point--actually if you like at the previous comment and my response, I talk about why Carlie and I came to the conclusions that we did. Thanks for asking!

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