It has been basically two weeks since I saw this movie, so this is far from fresh out of the theatre, but I've struggled figuring out how I want to analyze this one. Director Andrea Arnold has made a name for herself through films grounded in reality, winning the Jury Prize at Cannes for three of them. The two films of hers I've seen (Fish Tank and American Honey) each highlight the lives of people that we don't typical focus on in film, doing so with a style that feels intimate and authentic.
Bird initially falls right in line with those, following Bailey (Nykiya Adams), a twelve year old living with her dad (Barry Keoghan) in a run down area of North Kent. As her father prepares for his upcoming wedding and looks to different ways of making money, Bailey struggles through the early stages of puberty while feeling a lack of attention from those around her. That leads her to a run in with a strange man named Bird (Franz Rogowski) with whom she forms a unique bond.
I'm going to start with the best part of this movie which in my opinion is undeniably the breakthrough performance from Nykiya Adams. She makes her acting debut here and truly dazzles, delivering one of the most authentic performances I've seen this year. Veteran actors can struggle to give grounded performances, but it truly doesn't feel like Adams is acting half the time, everything she performs feels truly real and she holds her own among some big names in Keoghan and Rogowski with a strength that steals every scene.
Keoghan is actually less present than I expected. I thought he and Adams would basically be co-leads but he is on the sidelines for a lot of the movie. That isn't necessarily a bad thing though, not that he isn't good when he's on screen he is pretty great, but it allows Adams to really command the story. Thus far I have not really been a fan of Franz Rogowski, but I actually liked him quite a bit here. There's a bit of a creepiness to his character at first, but as we get more of him it's clear he is just an outsider which makes for a natural point of connection with Bailey. I would up really appreciating him here which was a pleasant surprise.
On the whole, the style here operates perfectly in bringing an authentic portrait of youth. That does mean some moments that are shot like kids would record things on a phone which I don't love, but it does work in the context of the movie. The biggest stylistic/narrative choice here though is pretty likely to divide people. After most of the runtime spent on the grounded story, Arnold takes a turn towards magical realism which I'm still figuring out how I feel about. On one hand it's a fascinating twist on how her films thus far have played out, on the other it undercuts so much of the authentic tone that was built up. It does offer an interesting thematic level in how it connects Bailey and Bird as kind of lost souls, but I don't think that diving off the deep end out of nowhere into the fantastical was needed to get that point across. If anything I found that point clearer before that shift.
I still appreciated the movie, but that strange narrative choice sadly left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth that had me leaving the theatre less excited that I was for a lot of the runtime. 3.5/5
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