The Big Picture

Bird
is familiar territory for director Andrea Arnold, often leaning too much into crowd-pleasing diegetic music sequences.
Barry Keoghan’s portrayal of Bug and Nykiya Adams’ performance as Bailey capture characters facing unconventional coming-of-age challenges.
Arnold’s kitchen sink drama style in
Bird
combines with magical realism but still often feel overly familiar, lacking complexity in some of its characters.

Mention U.K. filmmaker Andrea Arnold to a film lover and there is a strong likelihood the organ notes that open Rihanna’s “We Found Love” start up in their head. I’m referring, of course, to the moment in 2016’s American Honey in which Shia LaBeouf’s character dances on a Walmart counter to the track. Arnold’s latest, Bird, includes many of her patented sing-along moments. There is an unforgettable rendition of Coldplay’s “Yellow” in which Bug (Barry Keoghan) and his male friends loudly serenade a toad (yes, the amphibian. You read that right). It’s hard at times not to sense Bird leaning too much into these inherently crowd-pleasing diegetic music sequences. But Arnold is so talented at staging them that they still largely hit the spot even when employed for the umpteenth time.

Like Ronald Bronstein’s father character in the Safdie brothers’ 2009 film Daddy Longlegs, Keoghan’s young Bug is woefully ill-equipped to be a father, but possesses many endearing qualities otherwise. Frequently shirtless, his body is outfitted with an array of terrible tattoos, most notably a massive centipede that extends from his chest all the way up to his lower jaw. Fresh off his star-making performance in Saltburn, Keoghan chews the scenery in Bird, bringing a radiant charisma to a father figure that could be off-putting in other hands.

Bird (2024) Release Date May 16, 2024 Director Andrea Arnold Cast Nykiya Adams , Barry Keoghan , Franz Rogowski , James Nelson-Joyce , Jasmine Jobson Runtime 119 Minutes Main Genre Drama Writers Andrea Arnold Studio(s) Pinky Promise , Access Entertainment , BBC Film , BFI , House Productions , FirstGen Content

Bug’s no-nonsense daughter Bailey (newcomer Nykiya Adams) is the film’s lead and as a preteen growing up in a broken home, she must navigate traditional coming-of-age tropes including getting her first period in a male-dominated home, and less conventional ones like deciding whether to join her half-brother’s vigilante gang. Bird might’ve benefitted from zeroing in on a few of these elements and expanding on them a bit more, rather than quickly introducing new ideas only to have them disappear for the remainder of the film. The film’s second half settles in on Bailey’s mother’s boyfriend’s anger issues, and his scenes are visceral and harrowing but also overly familiar—this is a story we’ve seen before many times.

A standout sequence is Franz Rogowski’s introduction as the titular Bird, accidentally scaring Bailey with his sudden appearance in the middle of a seemingly empty field. He playfully vogues for Bailey’s camera, twirling around in a kilt for her, failing to understand she’s filming so he won’t attempt any funny business. Maybe it’s this naivety that draws Bailey to Bird, but she quickly drops the hard exterior and takes an active interest in him. Bailey is presented in her own character introduction as a fan of birds, and so these weird birdlike qualities of this stranger also named Bird, call out and pique her interest.

‘Bird’ Has a Dash of Magic Realism
Image via Cannes

One of Arnold’s strengths comes in refusing to deify her working-class subjects. These are neither the blameless saints of Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland nor the exploited subjects of a “parachute” documentary (when documentary filmmakers pop into a disadvantaged region, grab the footage and fly out). To Arnold, people are often both shitheads and worthy of love. People make mistakes and hurt those they love most. In Bird, one person not afforded this complexity is the angry boyfriend and his cartoonish rage feels out of step with the perspective granted everyone else.

Bird carries a palpable eagerness to audience please, most evident during the closing credits where rough iPhone footage of working-class Brits singing along to a popular song playing. There is no connection to the preceding narrative other than it being yet more amateur singing. After a moving climax in which the magical realism alluded to up until that point takes center stage, ending on this false note of non-actors singing is unfortunate.

Bird is the type of kitchen sink British drama Arnold previously mastered in films like 2009’s Fish Tank, but since moved away from in recent years. Her last few features and TV series directing gigs were all U.S.-based. Bird ultimately reads as Arnold “playing the hits” with a narrative she fundamentally knows how to stage in her sleep. Ultimately it feels too familiar, even with the welcome magical realism additions and a hallucinogenic slime secreting toad. Arnold fans will no doubt find plenty to latch onto with Bird, but it’s unlikely to convert non-believers.

Bird (2024) REVIEWAndrea Arnold’s Bird has plenty of welcome additions to her playbook, but there is still much here that feels too familiar.ProsKeoghan chews the scenery, bring a radiant charisma that complicates his father figure character.The standout scene introducing Rogowski’s titular bird and other moments shine bright.When it dives all the way into magical realism, what’s old feels new again. ConsThere is still much to the film that is too much like Arnold’s previous films.The shift back to singing after an audacious moment elsewhere undercuts its impact.

Bird had its World Premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.