Andrea Arnold바카라s cinema takes a gritty, unvarnished look at those who occupy society바카라s 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 transcendence바카라hope to go above and beyond one바카라s 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).
Amidst the maddening restlessness of her squat home in Kent, Bailey바카라s recourse is shooting snippets on her phone, then projecting it in her cramped room. Bird alternates between dramatic, enveloping compositions and Bailey바카라s 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 can바카라t hide her resentment when her father Bug (Barry Keoghan) suddenly springs on her that he바카라s marrying someone he바카라s 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. He바카라s more invested in partying and karaoking with friends than being remotely bothered about Bailey and Hunter. To him, they are nothing but peripheral concerns바카라passingly recalled only if they aren바카라t back home by night. He forgets even if they바카라ve 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. Bird바카라s (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. He바카라s 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 it바카라s 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 her바카라his presence still, light and healing. It바카라s as distant as possible from all the coarseness and chaos she바카라s accustomed to everywhere she looks. His wanderer soul expands her vision. There바카라s almost something maternal to him, making up for the care, encouragement and understanding she expects from her parents. They are implicitly absent바카라her father busy with his new girlfriend, her mother caught in a stormy, abusive relationship.
As Arnold바카라s go-to cinematographer Robbie Ryan enlivens cracks in these lives, there바카라s 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. There바카라s 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 Arnold바카라s 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 film바카라s spirit바카라Arnold 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 who바카라ll take things lying down. She hits back, fuming, asserting her will. She바카라s strenuously cautious and rock-sure of what바카라s 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, it바카라s 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.
