3.5 out of 5 stars

Andrea Arnold’s social drama, set in Gravesend, takes an uncomfortable magic realist twist that will divide audiences. After exploring the American highway (American Honey) and farming industry (Cow), Arnold returns to her Fish Tank (2009) roots with the mostly successful Bird.

Bird centres on Bailey (a debuting Nykiya Adams), a 12-year-old living in a squat in north Kent with her step-siblings and her chaotic young father, Bug (Barry Keoghan), a small-time hustler whose latest scheme is to sell hallucinogenic toad slime.

The opening act follows Bailey through her day-to-day life on the estate. Her dad is excited to marry a woman he’s only known three months, Kayleigh (Frankie Box), but Bailey’s unimpressed, especially when his bride-to-be presents her with a bridesmaid leopard-print catsuit. Meanwhile, Bailey’s friend group of older teenage boys and stepbrothers have found themselves acting as local vigilantes, fed up with the abuse and violence happening in their community without consequence.

Bird takes its time to establish the world around Bailey to ensure it feels sufficiently lived-in. She has a remarkable amount of freedom for a kid, looked after by her slightly older half-brother Hunter (Jason Edward Buda), with no hint of school or responsibilities. It’s hard for these scenes not to appear like playing into poverty-stricken working-class stereotypes. All these young adults are seemingly the product of teenage pregnancies, all of them in gangs and selling drugs, dressed in hoodies with pitbull dogs. While realistic and grounded, there’s a slight lack of nuance to Bailey’s world. Locations and characters are all painted with broad strokes, ticking off council estate stereotypes.

Bird sets up a narrative about teenage boys taking the law into their own hands, but Arnold is doing something more unique. The second act swerves somewhere new but not entirely welcome, leaving behind too many plot threads. A gritty coming-of-age drama and a fantastical fable just aren’t natural bedfellows, and audiences may mourn the film they felt they were going to.

When travelling through the nearby grassland, Bailey encounters the eccentric ‘Bird’ (Franz Rogowski). Bailey’s confused but fascinated by this peculiar man with a lyrical German accent, who wears a kilt and loiters on rooftops like Batman. Bird’s a free spirit looking to reunite with his family, who lived in a nearby block many years ago. He’s a fairytale character planted into a grim version of Gravesend. Bird is a film of extremes battling each other for dominance.

The film’s at its best when meditating on Bailey’s coming-of-age. The story gently explores themes of identity and belonging, especially as Bailey’s a mixed-race child living with her white father. The transition from girlhood to womanhood is tough enough, let alone in Bailey’s harsh surroundings. The goodwill, Adams’ performance, and the heartfelt writing just about balance the clichés about a pre-teen council estate living in the UK.

While Adams is a marvel in her first role, she’s no match for Barry Keoghan’s on-screen magnetism. As the young working-class father, it feels like he’s appearing as a main character in his own film, but it’s not this one. He’s always in the periphery of the narrative, doing something interesting and having a ball doing so. As his son and daughter are out living their own dramas, he is at home singing Coldplay songs to help the toad slime (it likes earnest music, apparently). Keoghan avoids the pitfalls of the deadbeat dad, instead turning Bug into a likeable, if not flawed, father who has found joy in the little he has. Zipping around on his electric scooter and singing to ‘dad music’, like Blur, it’s impossible not to feel short-changed by the lack of screen time but enamoured with what we do see.

Franz Rogowski’s offbeat appeal is at its softest in Bird. He looks and acts like an alien, uncomfortable in his own body and surroundings yet entirely delighted to be experiencing something new. Bird’s a fascinating character, just perhaps not right for this tale. Bailey and Bird’s entire bond takes a suspension of belief that these types of neorealistic stories usually try to avoid.

Bird unevenly fuses a tale of marginalised lives with magical realism. The elements that make Bird stand out are perhaps the weakest. The gritty social realism is far more emotive than the more eccentric beats. Arnold, who was born in Kent herself, understands this community, and just about keeps the film away from poverty porn or patronising the characters for their alternative way of making money.

The mysterious, eponymous Bird is the least interesting part of the film. The ambiguous nature of his story expects a lot from the audience, even if it doesn’t seem sure of itself. Bird’s mystical symbolism is latent and unsure of the end goal. Arnold never wants to commit to the magic fully, instead leaving important plots vague and never giving the titular character the resolution he deserves.

Andrea Arnold had spent some time away in the US directing episodes of TV shows like Transparent (2014-19) and Big Little Lies (2017-19). Some of the American slickness has worn off on the director, with Bird looking a little too shiny and over-worked at times. It doesn’t quite match the rawness of Arnold’s early films, leaning too hard into sentimentality, which occasionally makes the film feel inauthentic.

Arnold should be lauded for her bold twist on the Ken Loach-style British social drama. However, the surrealist fairytale twist doesn’t elevate the key themes; instead, adding an emotional barrier. The writer-director’s ambition doesn’t match the grounded coming-of-age story being told in Bird.

UK • USA • FRANCE • GERMANY | 2024 | 119 MINUTES | 1.66:1 | COLOUR | ENGLISH

frame rated divider mubi

Cast & Crew

writer & director: Andrea Arnold.
starring: Nykiya Adams, Barry Keoghan, Franz Rogowski, Jason Buda, Jasmine Jobson, Frankie Box & James Nelson-Joyce.