Andrea Arnold바카라™s cinema takes a gritty, unvarnished look at those who occupy society바카라™s very fringes. Without sentimentality, she puts them under the scanner, evoking weariness of being dealt a hard, unfair life and stray moments of reprieve. Her latest Bird (2024) reprises her regular obsessions, the overactive handheld style, but also marks major deviations. This combination hits several jarring notes. As always, the narrative is speckled with possibilities of transcendence바카라”hope to go above and beyond one바카라™s wretched circumstances. Instead of being absolutely put down, characters reclaim resilience. They move further, aiming for a shot which breaks cycles of misery. Arnold gives them grace of transgression, allowing them to dream and remake their lives. What flowers fresh is the surreal direction Bird rebounds in, becoming a vivid embodiment of the characters바카라™ flinging desires. Magic leavens the drab arena within which Arnold traces the journey of 12-year-old disaffected Bailey (Nykiya Adams).
Bird Review: Andrea Arnold바카라™s Kitchen Sink Drama Torn Between Sticking To And Straying From Familiarity
Outlook at HIFF | Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski starrer is a partially realized coming-of-age fable
Amidst the maddening restlessness of her squat home in Kent, Bailey바카라™s recourse is shooting snippets on her phone, then projecting it in her cramped room. Bird alternates between dramatic, enveloping compositions and Bailey바카라™s phone footage. The latter is the space she levers for herself in a world denying her any. With it, she captures everything from birds, horses and butterflies to aggressions and awkward denials. She can바카라™t hide her resentment when her father Bug (Barry Keoghan) suddenly springs on her that he바카라™s marrying someone he바카라™s known for just three months. Why is she the last one to know? She asks. Bug pops random living arrangements without ever considering his kids. He바카라™s more invested in partying and karaoking with friends than being remotely bothered about Bailey and Hunter. To him, they are nothing but peripheral concerns바카라”passingly recalled only if they aren바카라™t back home by night. He forgets even if they바카라™ve already informed him. Raging, she snips off her hair right before his wedding.
Bird blends the natural world and miracles in easy dialogue, one paving way for the other to emerge. Bird바카라™s (Franz Rogowski) arrival is heralded by rustling leaves, the uncanny filling the air. Wrapped in ambiguity, the only thing he reveals is he comes from his town. He바카라™s returned after many years, looking for his parents and family. However, everything appears unrecognizably changed. The radical overhaul he witnesses is also what he subtly promises Bailey.
Bird is often called a freak but it바카라™s he who becomes an anchoring force. He radiates comfort and reassurance, though Bailey is initially unsettled by his sudden appearance out of thin air. His otherworldly demeanor tickles her curiosity. Eventually, she leans in to trust him. His kindness gently lifts her바카라”his presence still, light and healing. It바카라™s as distant as possible from all the coarseness and chaos she바카라™s accustomed to everywhere she looks. His wanderer soul expands her vision. There바카라™s almost something maternal to him, making up for the care, encouragement and understanding she expects from her parents. They are implicitly absent바카라”her father busy with his new girlfriend, her mother caught in a stormy, abusive relationship.
As Arnold바카라™s go-to cinematographer Robbie Ryan enlivens cracks in these lives, there바카라™s also wonder infused. Bird vacillates between hard-boiled kitchen sink drama and mystical dashes. We are given windows into toxic family situations, children growing up in highly stressful environments, fighting neglect and abandonment. There바카라™s no breathing space to jostle for a healthy, functional life where they can dissociate and bury themselves in school and homework and games. Shorn of parenting, kids in Arnold바카라™s films have to fend for themselves, tossed into navigating the big, bad world. However, many scenes in Bird are stuck being mere patchy callbacks of infinitely richer, more nuanced Arnold films.
Enigma drapes this film바카라™s spirit바카라”Arnold interrupts with looseness and cheeky vagueness just when things seem too dreary or affixed in irredeemable situations. Magic delightfully bursts in as an alternative space, guiding the protagonist to head somewhere viable, tangibly affirming. As Bailey, Nykiya Adams combines sturdiness with dogged refusal to be cast aside. Bailey is not someone who바카라™ll take things lying down. She hits back, fuming, asserting her will. She바카라™s strenuously cautious and rock-sure of what바카라™s unacceptable. Arnold extracts tragic desperation in her, along with persistent hope. Adams holds the film in a mix of brittleness and the yearning for calm and reliable love which racks Bailey. Even as the filmmaking is energetic and balanced, it바카라™s impossible to overlook jaded strains in the narrative, a sense of a retread while characters grapple with their tough lives. Despite all its buoyant final notes, Bird feels too emblematic of the standard kitchen sink drama without carrying its own specificity.
Bird screened at Habitat International Film Festival 2025.
