Bird Review: LFF 2024
Bird is a coming of age tale on the edges of society from Andrea Arnold
12-year-old Bailey (newcomer Nykiya Adams) lives in a squat in Gravesend with her dad Bug (Barry Keoghan) and brother Hunter (Jason Buda.) It’s a chaotic homelife to say the least, and with her dad distracted by his upcoming wedding to another young parent he really doesn’t pay much attention to Bailey. Disapproving of her dad’s new relationship and in search of her own entertainment, Bailey wanders the neighbourhood alone.
Bailey clearly sees a world beyond the dilapidated reality of her surroundings, her eyes frequently falling to nature and particularly birds in flight, creatures that are free to go wherever they want. When she runs into a wandering, free-spirited man named Bird (Passages Franz Rogowski) who is looking for his long-lost family Bailey offers to help him, and in turn Bird comes to help her with some family problems of her own.
Bird writer/director Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank, American Honey) has consistently felt like she’s had her finger on the pulse of youth culture, in no small part to her track record of unearthing and casting brilliant young people who are often making their acting debut. Nykiya Adams is another such star find, appearing in nearly every scene of the film, she carries it with a confidence that far belies her young years. As Adams and her costars cavort across the screen soundtracked by Fontaines DC, Sleaford Mods and Burial this might be the coolest and most current sounding film of the year.
Though Bird presents us with some genuinely bleak scenes of squalor and child abuse, Arnold handles her subject matter with great sensitivity and a clear care for young Bailey. Her characters are often imperfect, abrasive, even criminal; but they are well-rounded, thought-out individuals whose circumstances aren’t used to force audience opinion of them. Much as we might be shocked at how these people are living, neither Arnold nor Bailey asks for our pity.
As we reach moments of true darkness Arnold swings from her usual unflinching realism to something a little more magical. There is a clear villain of the piece – one born of malice and not circumstance – and as Bailey comes face to face with him, she slips increasingly into a fairytale world. The choices Arnold makes with these scenes will no doubt be divisive and might seem to come out of nowhere, but I appreciated the subtle breadcrumbs she had left throughout the film suggesting things might never have been as literal as they seem. This is a film that would bear rewatching.
Keoghan’s unemployed, heavily tattooed young dad who’s convinced he’s going to get rich out of exploiting a hallucinogenic toad is an absolute blast. He reportedly dropped out of a role in Gladiator II to appear in Bird, and he gives a whirlwind performance as chaotic Bug before bringing the story back to a grounded reality at the end. I only wish someone had had a word with his makeup artist about the tattoos – they are distractingly fake in some scenes.
Bird is a film about growing up and figuring out who you’re going to be, fighting for the people you love and recognising that familial love can look different than you might expect. It’s challenging at times; a surprisingly surreal but emotionally resonant coming of age story from a film maker who never misses. What a run for Angela Arnold. What a debut for Nikiya Adams.
Bird is playing as part of the BFI London Film Festival 2024. It will be out in cinemas on 9th November 2024.
Check out more reviews from London Film Festival 2024 here
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