BIRD (2024) - Mark Reviews Movies

Bird, Mubi

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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 7, 2024

In Bird, the story of 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams) becomes partly defined by two men. One of them is someone whom she should know well and who should know her as much, if not more. However, that man, her relatively young father, is so caught up in his own schemes, plans, and desires that their relationship almost seems like a non-existent thing. The other man is a complete stranger, who happens upon Bailey in a field one day to ask her some questions about the neighborhood. Somehow, the two of them form a stronger connection than the one Bailey has with her father.

That's more or less the core of writer/director Andrea Arnold's somewhat rambling, in terms of narrative and intent, but sincere look at a girl who doesn't seem to know what she wants or needs, because nobody in her life has bothered to ask or even to wonder what those things might be. The story feels aimless, perhaps, because Bailey herself is that way, too. She goes from thing to thing, person to person, and motive and motive, often because the kid is just trying to get away from the feelings of being overlooked, unappreciated, and even unloved by those closest to her.

She's especially trying to distance herself from her father, a man only known as Bug (Barry Keoghan), whose body is covered in insect tattoos that either came from the nickname or helped to ensure that it would stick. When we first see Bailey, she's fascinated by another animal—namely the birds that fly around the neighborhood Kent she calls home. Standing on an elevated walkway above a highway, she stares at a gull flying in the sky, and then, one walks up right to her, staring with a kind of daring curiosity. Bug interrupts the moment, riding up to his daughter on his motorized scooter, and insists he brings Bailey home to tell her some big news.

What happens back at the family's apartment, where Bailey lives with her dad and half-brother Hunter (Jason Buda), sums up Bug's personality quite succinctly. For one thing, he's excited about his newest scheme, which involves a toad native to Colorado that secretes a hallucinogenic slime under the right conditions.

In his mind, it's a guaranteed way to make some good money quickly, and oh, he needs that cash now, by the way, because he's about to marry Kayleigh (Frankie Box) in just a few days. This is the first Bailey is hearing that her father is going to marry this woman, whom he started dating three months ago and whom Bailey barely knows, except that she and her daughter have been spending more time at the apartment.

Why didn't Bug ask Bailey what she thinks or even tell her about the upcoming marriage until now? That's just Bug, who acts on impulse and seemingly with little consideration for what other people, even his kids, want or think. Keoghan's performance, by the way, is a tricky one, because Bug is such a larger-than-life character, loud and driven by his emotions and just sort of flitting about as his mood commands, but beneath that obvious surface, there are flashes of genuine care and sincerity. They're easy to miss at first, and indeed, it's not until later that Bailey even realizes she has missed most of them.

The conflict at home sends Bailey out and about in the neighborhood, following Hunter, who's part of a vigilante group that engenders fear and exacts punishment on local men who mistreat their partners and/or kids, and checking in on her half-siblings who live with their mother Peyton (Jasmine Jobson), who's currently in a relationship with one of those types of men, and otherwise avoiding home as much as she can. That leads her to meet the mysterious Bird, the stranger from the field, played by Franz Rogowski in a soft-spoken performance of bare vulnerability.

In any other situation, we might question the entire dynamic of this connection, between a 12-year-old girl and a wandering man who just comes up to her in the middle of nowhere, but for as strange as Bird seems—and, well, is, in ways that do come as a genuine surprise—here, Rogowski exudes a quality of person who is harmless and compassionate. Besides, Bailey is smart enough to record any suspicious interaction she has on her phone—just in case.

We buy the relationship, too, because it's between two people who are longing for connection and can find it nowhere else. The portrait of Bailey's life has revealed that about her, and meanwhile, Bird has returned to this place, because he grew up here and wants to find his mother. He knows the apartment building where she lived, and that sends Bailey to start asking around, leading the pair to her mother, the angry man (played by James Nelson-Joyce) who lives with Peyton, and to a series of secrets and painful truths about their respective families—as well as some decisions about what to do about these assorted messes.

Arnold's style, which takes on a mostly realistic approach in terms of performance and camerawork, occasionally embraces a dream-like nature, especially as Bailey recalls events, often played as her cellphone videos projected on a wall, and finds a different perspective of her father. The approach is compelling on its own, but it's only later that we realize those flourishes in Bird have been guiding us toward its climax. What happens won't be revealed here, of course, but it's a bold and daring move, suggesting wishful fantasy, magical reality, or some blending of the two. Either way, it gives us some hope that Bailey has learned something about herself and how she might take some control over a life that has been defined by other people.

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