Lady Bird - Sacto & UC Davis Set at St. Francis High School which is just over the tracks from the Slack State campus, notably just west of the soccer, softball and baseball fields. The actual filming for the scenes set in the fictional high school in the movie was done in Southern California. Ms. Gerwig grew up in an area called River Park which is due north of the Slack campus. Many exterior shots of Sacramento and particularly East Sac in the movie. Gerwig has commented that filming in Sac is expensive compared to Southern California.
J Street is a major artery in Sacramento. The Capitol building is located between L and N and 10th and 15th Streets. Going back to your early algebra days, think of the older sections of Sac as a grid, with the numbered streets running north and south and the lettered streets running east and west. The northwest corner of the older section would be essentially 1st Street and A Streets. (For some geographical reasons those streets don't exist.) If you were to head east on J from the downtown area Slack State is at about the 6000's, or 60 blocks from the river and Old Sac. The actual St. Francis High School is at about 58th and M.
Reference is made in the movie to the "40s" which is a nice, established, tree lined area basicaly between J Street and Folsom Blvd (think P street) and between 38th Street and 47th Street. Realtors and insecure residents of this area call it the "Fab 40s." The blue house where some of the exterior scenes were shot is in the 40s. The interior shots for a Thanksgiving meal (theoretically held inside the blue house) were also filmed in the 40s, however in a different house.
There is a scene set in McKinley Park which is between E and H and Alhambra Blvd. (think 31st St.) and 33rd Streets.
The view of Davis shown in the movie is common with high school kids here. It's too close...they have lived in the flat, hot valley for most of their lives and want to get away. If you are like Gerwig, and into drama and the related arts, you want to get to New York CIty. "If you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere,..."
I grew up in a completely different time zone, but the people I met at Davis who were from Sacramento thought it turned out to be a good location. Far enough away that Mom & Dad didn't have to know what you were up to, but close enough if you wanted a home cooked meal.
I enjoyed the movie, but for me a lot of that is familiarity with the times, the settings and some of the people on whom characters were based.