One of the rare directors capable of depicting realistic, involving characters in the degraded milieu of English squats and council estates, Andrea Arnold brings Ken Loach’s portraits of the other England up to date in Bird.
Alternately an earthy coming-of-ager and a humorous fantasy that invokes supernatural help for the troubled young protag, the film keeps its sights carefully trained on a spunky black girl growing into womanhood in the projects, where her options are objectively as limited as the wire frame bridges that crisscross the countryside. But her imagination and sensibility, beautifully rendered by the camerawork and editing, offer a way out, if she can avoid the traps around her.
After her three previous films bowing in Cannes competition – Red Road, Fish Tank and American Honey – won the Jury Prize, Arnold must be feeling “always a bridesmaid, never a bride”, a joke that may be woven into her screenplay. The action gets off to a breathless, high-decibel start when a fully tattooed wildman whisks young Bailey (Nykiya Adams) off at high-speed on a stand up scooter. The manic driver turns out to be her father Bug (Irish actor Barry Keoghan), whose frenzied state of being is never clarified as natural, intoxicated, or other. From a normal plot p.o.v., Bug seems way too young to have a 12-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old son who has just gotten his own 14-year-old girlfriend pregnant. But such is life.
The non-stop drama ratchets up a notch when Dad reveals to Bailey that he and his new girlfriend Kayleigh are getting married on Saturday, and she is expected to be – what else? – a bridesmaid. Deeply hurt that she is “the last to know”, Bailey rudely and loudly refuses, even after Kayleigh produces her surprise: lavender and black print catsuits for all the bridesmaids.
This Sturm und Drang takes place in their grungy modern council house, which D.P. Robbie Ryan unexpectedly turns into a light-drenched home for extended families, with its hand-painted walls covered with flowers and slogans like ‘I hate humans’ but also ‘Hope’ and ‘Don’t worry’.
So the odds are pretty evenly stacked for and against Bailey, who looks older than 12 and is about to get her first period. Acting tough and superior, she has her long, kinky locks shorn off into a cool short Afro (it is a time-marker that Bug and most of the other characters find it “ugly”.) Unlike her father and siblings, Bailey is a girl of color, and it is not until much later, when she takes a bus to visit her mom and three more siblings in the next town, that her family origins are made clear.
The camera keeps a sensitive closeness to the characters, an attention that extends to Bailey’s curiosity about nature. Standing behind a web of wire fences, she is constantly filming the free-flying birds overhead on her beat-up phone, the message being clear. One day, after following a gang of self-styled teenage vigilantes who cruelly slash a man’s face (“to warn kids to keep away from him”), she runs off into the fields and meets an incredible character romping around in a swishing skirt. He calls himself Bird and every gesture he makes reinforces his name in a mildly comic pantomime. Later, Bailey finds him perched on the roof of one of the town’s taller buildings, from which he says he is looking for his lost parents.
Not all viewers will appreciate the abrupt appearance of a character as undefined as Bird. A guardian angel? Magical metamorphosis? There is a lot of the Little Mermaid in Rogowski’s delicately nasal performance, as he seems to be a bird who once lived a human life and still longs to tie up loose threads. Younger viewers would certainly appreciate his humorous face and mannerisms (as they surely would Keoghan’s truly delightful hyper-active, drug-dealing, best Dad in the world), if there wasn’t so much underlying violence in the story to scare them to death. Though it takes place off screen, sex (including child abuse) and physical harm are the dark underbelly of this family fable.
In the main role, newcomer Nykiya Adams stands out with her natural, on-the-mark acting, backed up by strong work from a mixed cast of pros and non-pros. Barry Keoghan (Eternals, The Banshees of Inisherin) throws himself joyfully into the role and the time when punk music was all the rage and toads could be an important source of drug income. Rogowski, whose career has ranged over genres and directors, adds a feather to his cap as Bird, and it will be hard to forget his lone figure outlined against the sky on the rooftop, half-super hero and half seagull.
Director, screenplay: Andrea Arnold
Cast: Nykiya Adams, Barry Keoghan, Franz Rogowski, James Nelson-Joyce, Sarah Beth Harber, Jasmine Jobson, Rhys Yates, Joanne Matthews, Frankie Box, Jason Buda
Producers: Lee Groombridge, Juliette Howell, Tessa Ross
Cinematography: Robbie Ryan
Editing: Joe Bini
Production design: Maxine Carlier
Production companies: Pinky Promise (US), FirstGen Content (US), Access Entertainment (UK), Ad Vitam Production (France), Arte France Cinema, BBC Film, British Film Institute, House Productions
World Sales: Cornerstone Films (UK)
Venue: Cannes Film Festival (Competing)
In English
119 minutes
