By Karl Quinn
BIRD ★★★★
(MA15+) 119 minutes
For most of its running time, Bird is a resolutely social-realist piece of work, all poverty and neglect and brief moments of escape. But towards the end it takes a most unlikely leap into magical realism. It’s a shift that is likely to divide audiences, and I’m still not sure what I feel about it except to say I didn’t hate it.
Bird stars non-actor Nykiya Adams as 12-year-old Bailey.Credit: Suppiled
English filmmaker Andrea Arnold wrote and directed the movie, which is set in and around a housing estate in Kent, much like the one she grew up in. The story unfolds through the eyes and ears and experiences of Bailey (Nykiya Adams), a 12-year-old girl who lives in a shambolic squat and seems to be largely raising herself.
Certainly her dad, Bug (Barry Keoghan), isn’t much use, with his endless partying and mad schemes, such as raising the money for his wedding to a woman he’s known for three months by extracting and selling the supposedly psychotropic secretions of a toad. He became a father in his mid-teens, and he’s still a kid himself, more sibling than parent to his offspring.
Bailey’s mum Peyton (Jasmine Jobson) is even less help; she lives on the other side of town, with her abusive boyfriend and Bailey’s younger three half-siblings. When Bailey pays them a visit, the screen burns with his menace and their fear.
Bailey fills her days by wandering through the fields and trying to slot into the gang her half-brother Hunter (Jason Buda) is running with. They’ve styled themselves as vigilantes, carrying out violent retribution against bad people, and Bailey thinks her mum’s boyfriend might be the perfect candidate.
Though the elements are stark and undeniably grim, there’s a joyousness to Bird that defies expectations. I suspect it comes from knowing from first-hand there’s pleasure to be found just about anywhere if you know where to look, and are committed to the search.
Arnold grew up in tough circumstances as the oldest of four kids raised by a single mum. Keoghan grew up in foster homes and lost his mother to drug addiction when he was just 12. Adams and Buda are non-professional actors; Arnold – who writes her screenplays as she’s shooting – has said she changed the character as well as the script to suit her young lead.
Franz Rogowski as the mysterious Bird.Credit: Atsushi Nishijima
Adams is a revelation, infusing Bailey with strength and vulnerability, wisdom and innocence. She’s a kid being asked to grow up far too soon, a lonely child who desperately needs a friend. In Bird (Franz Rogowski), she finds it. A young homeless man with a strange accent and a fondness for skirts, he seems threatening when he first appears, but quickly establishes himself as a protector of sorts, even as he draws upon Bailey’s strength and acceptance for his needs.
Full of sadness, longing, and little moments of beauty and joy, it’s a strange creature, this movie, especially in its final act. It meanders at times, but it soars too, lifted high on a belief love and family really do matter, no matter how scrappy and unconventional a form they may take.
Bird is released in cinemas on February 20.
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