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- MUBI
- 1 h 59 m
- MUBI
- 1 h 59 m
Summary 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams) lives with her single dad Bug (Barry Keoghan) and brother Hunter (Jason Buda) in a squat in North Kent. Bug doesn’t have much time for his kids and Bailey who is approaching puberty seeks attention and adventure elsewhere.
Directed By: Andrea Arnold
Written By: Andrea Arnold
- MUBI
- 1 h 59 m
- MUBI
- 1 h 59 m
Bird
69
User Score
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Summary 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams) lives with her single dad Bug (Barry Keoghan) and brother Hunter (Jason Buda) in a squat in North Kent. Bug doesn’t have much time for his kids and Bailey who is approaching puberty seeks attention and adventure elsewhere.
Directed By: Andrea Arnold
Written By: Andrea Arnold
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 17 Critic Reviews
69
65% Positive
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
35% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 17 Critic Reviews
69
65% Positive
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
35% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
There is so much beauty in Bird, both within the relationships unraveling onscreen and on the screen itself — bright reds and whites and blacks lusciously captured in the film, the edges of the image burnt and remade, almost like yet another bird, the phoenix.
Delivering her first narrative feature since 2016’s American Honey, Arnold initially seems to be retreading familiar social-realist ground, delving into poverty-stricken working-class lives. But in its second half Bird crosses into fable-like territory, with impressive results.
Thanks to the director’s magisterial knack with actors (especially non-professionals such as terrific adolescent discovery Nykiya Adams, who, as the protagonist, is in nearly every frame of the film), the result is quite entrancing.
If ever a film puts its arm round a kid and says: ‘Don’t worry, I’ve got you’, that’s Bird and Bailey. She’s a character you feel Arnold would lie on railtracks to protect – and that’s a powerful, moving instinct to share.
Bird ultimately reads as Arnold “playing the hits” with a narrative she fundamentally knows how to stage in her sleep. Ultimately it feels too familiar, even with the welcome magical realism additions and a hallucinogenic slime secreting toad. Arnold fans will no doubt find plenty to latch onto with Bird, but it’s unlikely to convert non-believers.
It meditates on identity and belonging, the poignancy of not being valued, not being seen, the transition from childhood to adulthood, girlhood to womanhood, sexism and cruelty. The energy and heartfelt good humour offset the moments of cliche and implausibility.
The film is Arnold trying to have the integrity of her severity and eat it too. Bird is a feel-bad movie that turns into a feel-good movie. What it never feels like is a totally authentic movie.
User Reviews
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