⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ (out of 5 stars)
Andrea Arnold is an acclaimed British independent filmmaker whose films often deal with themes of deprivation and impoverishment, with dramas featuring teenagers living in the poverty-stricken English edge-lands. She won an Academy Award for her short film Wasp in 2005. Her feature films Red Road, Fish Tank , and American Honey all won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Her latest film, Bird, premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and focuses on many common themes in Arnold’s other works.
The film follows 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams), who lives with her single father, Bug (Barry Keoghan), and her half-brother Hunter (Jason Buda) in a squat in northern Kent. Bug doesn't have much time to devote to his children. He is caught up in a new whirlwind romance with his fiancé Kayley (Frankie Box) and Bailey, who is approaching puberty, seeks attention and love elsewhere. But unable to live with her mother, Peyton (Jasmine Jobson), who now has four other children with her abusive partner, Bailey feels trapped and aimless. However, a chance encounter with a mysterious but gentle stranger named Bird (Franz Rogowski) causes her to find an inner peace she hadn’t thought possible.
The film is a slow burn and sometimes esoteric and surreal. As a coming-of-age British poverty drama, it is often harsh and full of broken people but also glimmers with hope and love. Nykiya Adams is mesmerising in a commanding lead performance as a young woman coming-of-age yet already lopsided in maturity. She’s a product of a broken home with a dropkick dad played with roguish charm by Barry Keoghan), a messy mother and a brash half-brother.
The pre-teen lost most of her childhood innocence - she drinks, smokes and looks after her younger half-siblings like a second mother. But her hard exterior is steadily broken down by the silly yet sweet Bird - a mysterious stranger she comes across and becomes intrigued by. And it’s his mystic aura that eventually helps Bailey conquer her loneliness and find some semblance of peace. I applaud Andrea Arnold’s attempt to use magical realism for escapist and esoteric catharsis, but it takes a long time to culminate. The film is structurally messy, and not all of it connects well. Still, at its core it’s a beautifully intentioned film about broken people finding each other and trying to make each other’s lives better and brighter.
Reel Dialogue: The brokenness of sin
Bailey lives in a broken world where the effects of sin are clear and apparent. Her brother Hunter’s friends have decided to become a vigilante task force doling out justice to the abusers in their area. Hunter’s girlfriend Moon is pregnant at 13, hoping to run to Scotland with him. Bailey’s mother Peyton is stuck in an abusive relationship with her partner. Bailey’s father Bug is a drug addict and broke. But she finds solace in her friendship with the mysterious Bird, who becomes her guardian angel, shepherding her from harm and helping her to find peace amidst her hardship.
In a world so full of brokenness, we can feel tempted to either ignore the realities of sin and delude ourselves or numb ourselves to them with substances and diversions. But the Bible calls us not to ignore the sin in this world but rather to recognise it, reckon with our own sin within us, and turn to the Saviour of this broken world who can save us from our sin—Jesus Christ.
1 John 1:8 "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us."
