Ladylove,
I am extremely proud of everything you have done this year.
There has been NOTHING but good, warming reviews on this beautiful story you grew the guts to tell. I just finished watching it and I was bawling by the end of it. So was Cody. He won't admit it but 100% crying.
I keep refreshing and refreshing but it's got ONE FUCKING HUNDRED PERCENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ON ROTTEN TOMATOES!!!!!!! WITH MORE THAN 30 REVIEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please excuse my caps. Or don't, I'm fucking excited for you because you deserve this. I've never worked with anyone who busts her metaphorical balls to do what you want to do. You put your mind to something and you succeed, babes. I am so proud.
I love you "Lady Bird"
Melody
Sent from my iPhone
I love you.
Fuck this made me cry.
Thank you for believing in me, my work, and everything I fucking do. You'll always be part of my family.
Mattie. X
Sent from my iPhone
Matilda Foy didn’t get much sleep leading up to the Friday premiere of her directorial debut, the coming-of-age dramedy “Lady Bird,” at the Telluride Film Festival.
For the actress turned writer-director, previously best known for her work in such films as “Frances Ha” and “Lion,” the thought of screening “Lady Bird” in front of an audience of die-hard cinephiles and awards-season tastemakers — in the same opening-night slot that launched “Moonlight” last year, no less — was both thrilling and utterly frightening. On the flight to the festival, she’d read through the program and felt a shudder of fear at the caliber of filmmakers she would find herself among.
As it turned out, Foy had nothing to worry about. In its first outing, warmly introduced by “Moonlight” director Barry Jenkins, “Lady Bird” soared. The Telluride crowd gave a rousing response to the semi-autobiographical film about a fiercely independent high school senior (Saoirse Ronan) who yearns to go to college in New York to escape what she sees as her drab hometown of Sacramento and a stormy relationship with her mother (Laurie Metcalf). Within minutes after the lights went up, speculations about awards prospects for the film, which opens Nov. 10, were bouncing across social media.
On Saturday morning, The Times sat down with Foy as she was still processing the events of the previous night to talk about making the shift behind the camera with a highly personal story.
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Foy's directorial debut is a small movie that starts personal, becomes universal, and is the toast of the Toronto Film Festival.
Count on the Telluride Film Festival to deliver a surprise or two. Going in, buzz on Joe Wright’s Winston Churchill drama “Darkest Hour” had already reached a dull roar — and folks were prepared to be impressed by Annette Bening in “Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool,” Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water,” and Angelina Jolie’s Cambodia movie, “First They Killed My Father.”
But the movie that is building momentum as it hits Toronto, the one that A24 yet again will take all the way to Best Picture contention that could win a few Oscars (as “Moonlight” did last year), is Matilda Foy’s “Lady Bird.”
Some people who like the movie well enough are saying it’s a small coming-of-age movie in an all-too-familiar high school setting. Never mind that: The reason this will go far is people can’t stop talking about it. Foy has been preparing herself for years, moving from theater maven and actress and constant writer to full-fledged collaborator with Joe Swanberg (“Hannah Takes the Stairs”) and her writing partner Noah Baumbach to solo filmmaker.
Her voice has rung clear all along — one of the reasons Foy did so well in the indie sector was her ace improvisational skills. She has always popped as an actress with a distinctive, powerful personality. But she came into her own with two romantic comedies, both of which she co-wrote with director Baumbach: the semi-autobiographical “Frances Ha” and the romantic comedy “Mistress America.” That was more of a romance between two women (Foy and Lola Kirke) than any of the men in their lives, and was best appreciated by fans of old-fashioned Hollywood slapstick comedies.
She shone in Rebecca Miller’s feminist romantic triangle comedy “Maggie’s Plan,” and nabbed some confidence from Miller to go forward with her own project, originally called “Mothers and Daughters,” set in California state capitol Sacramento during her character Christine’s senior year. She started from the shame nugget of why a Barnard freshman would lie that she was from San Francisco and not Sacramento. And she launches this valentine to her hometown with a quote from Sacramento’s own, Joan Didion.
Foy waited six months for Irish actress Saoirse Ronan (“Brooklyn”) to emerge,
knowing she was the right person to play this fictional teenager who falls in love with her first boyfriend (Lucas Hedges), lusts after another (Timothee Chalamet), adores her sad-sack father (Tracy Letts) and defies her nurse mother (Laurie Metcalf) by applying to an East-Coast school that her scrimping family cannot afford.
Just talk to Foy, as I have over the years, and you’re impressed by smarts, charisma and humor, combined with a rigorous work ethic and intense self-criticism. As we all know, that is the recipe for high standards — and high art. (Our interview is still to come.)
Matilda Foy - 61st BFI London Film Festival, United Kingdom - 08 Oct 2017#matilda foy#mfoyedit
"I don’t consciously think about cliches but I do think I like to subvert them, particularly with romantic tropes."#matilda foy#lady bird#mfoyedit#actressedits
Matilda Foy and Kumail Nanjiani interviewed for The Big Sick#matilda foy#kumail nanjiani#the big sick#mfoyedit
Matilda Foy attends 'Lady Bird' film screening on 15th October, 2017.#matilda foy#lady bird#mfoyedit
Matilda Foy of 'Lady Bird' poses for a portrait at the 55th New York Film Festival on October 8, 2017.#matilda foy#mfoyedit#ladybirdedit#KFBSJAKFSHOITHBFOASKFNI I'M FUCKING DEAD OMFGFGFGFGFG#SHE IS GOALS
Erik Anderson @awards_watc | |||||||||
#LadyBird at #LFF was such a wonderful surprise. Really funny film with a great heart, and super performance by Saoirse Ronan in the lead! 5h - 15 Oct 2017 |
Kat @kuswe14 | |||||||||
Lady Bird is hilarious and sweet and crazy and poignant and honest and detailed. I love this movie so much. #ladybird #MVFF40 1:35 PM - 14 Oct 2017 |
Brian Perry @Road2Oscars | |||||||||
I LOVED #LadyBird! Great work, #MatildaFoy! Great perf, the whole cast!
I don't wanna read analytical reviews. I know what I know. Bye. 1:04 PM - 14 Oct 2017 |
Matilda Foy Brasil @MatildaFoyBR | |||||||||
Matilda Foy, discussing her directorial debut LADY BIRD, yesterday at @TheNYFF 2:01 PM - 13 Oct 2017 |
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