Bird

Andrea Arnold returns with a devastating coming-of-age fairytale that's textured and lived in, although sometimes it trips up with its more fantastical elements

Film Review by Anna Ireland | 05 Nov 2024
  • Bird
Film title: Bird
Director: Andrea Arnold
Starring: Nykiya Adams, Franz Rogowski, Barry Keoghan, Jason Buda, James Nelson-Joyce, Jasmine Jobson, Frankie Box
Release date: 8 Nov
Certificate: 15

There’s a lot going on in Bird, Andrea Arnold’s fifth feature film, including motifs fans might recognise: horses, butterflies, nature in contrast to oppressive human structures. For 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams), animals – in particular, birds – provide breathing space from her chaotic home life in a semi-squat in Kent with her brother Hunter (Jason Buda) and her unpredictable dad, Bug (Barry Keoghan). Bailey films the birds and nature around her, giving her an outlet from a chaotic ecosystem that requires her to act like an adult but fails to give her the agency of one.

This changes when she meets Bird (Franz Rogowoski), an eccentric, boyish creature who is looking for his long-lost parents on Bailey’s estate. Bird disarms Bailey with his attention to the present moment and his ease with life’s volatility. In contrast, every other male character either enacts violence or seeks escape (including Hunter, who tries to flee to Scotland, only for Bug to scoff: "Who wants to go to Scotland? Do you like haggis?").

Throughout Bird, Arnold pushes the boundaries of what’s ‘real’, leaning into elements of fantasy and magical realism to question what we are owed by nature, if anything. These ideas are textured and lived, yet they don’t always land in their execution. When Bird flows, it’s brilliant, pulsing and alive, yet its fantastical elements can be jarring. It feels as though Arnold is nudging us out of the nest – a challenge some might enjoy more than others.


Released 8 Nov by Mubi; certificate 15