'BIRD' REVIEW: Startlingly Physical and Emotional Magical Realism Tragicomedy [4/5]
Newcomer Nykiya Adams and Fast Success Barry Keoghan Tackle Family
[Rating 4/5] - dir. Andrea Arnold - 2024 - United Kingdom/France - R - 1h 59m - Magical Realism / Drama
A gripping coming-of-age film. Two fearless actors at its centre. A satisfying soundtrack. Overall, a startlingly vivid picture of a certain life.
This is Bird.
Actually, this is Bailey (Nykiya Adams) and Bug (Barrie Keoghan), a 12 year old and her single father, respectively.
They live on the fringes of city society, who see them somewhere between an amusement and a source for embarrassment and a nuisance.
I suspect there is a lot going on in the background and in the subtext of this film that English/UK audiences will understand. There are implications everywhere in dialogue and action, and unique choices (Bug’s scooter?) but I can’t quite capture them as I believe they were meant to be captured, being Canadian.
So I’ll speak in references I understand.
This feels like the synthesized, adult version of the UK teen series Skins, and like with that show, some audiences of Bird will be scandalized just by the very idea there are young people living this way. Conversely, others will nod along knowingly.
I believe director Andrea Arnold meant to make a document of a lifestyle only few really know. By that I mean, some films serve the actors, or the set design, or the IP. This doesn’t do that. This prioritizes capturing someone’s reality in all its tragicomedy over highlighting a performance, or cinematography. It’s like real life-concentrate. Experience has been distilled down to its essentials and sharply presented, intensely saturated on screen. That Keoghan’s performance is as great as any he’s ever done before, and that relative newcomer Nykiya Adams is able to imbue so much through so little, are integral to the film working, but not its point. That the cinematography is emotionally in tune with these physical, vivid performers and the kinds of lives they lead and the way they lead them is part of what makes this film such a great achievement, but not its point.
The point is capturing stories on film in a way that somehow feel more real than when they were lived, because they’ve been synthesized and interpreted by memory and a common goal in order to emphasize the story’s originally buried, seemingly accidental themes.
…Innit?
Just watch it.
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‘Bird’ is available to stream with Mubi.
Selected Movie Quote: “Yeah, like yer ma.”
[Rating 4/5] - dir. Andrea Arnold - 2024 - United Kingdom/France - R - 1h 59m - Magical Realism / Drama