In the opening scene of Greta Gerwig’s “Lady Bird,” Saoirse Ronan (“Little Women”) delivers the knock-out line: “I wish I could live through something.” It’s a sidebar to start an argument, an offhand ...

Likewise, Lady Bird's final phone call to Marion is the act of love that caps the film. After a night of freshman drinking lands her in the hospital, she ends up in front of a Church, placing a ...