Blue skies, violent teens, and a drug secreting toad. This is the world of Andera Arnold’s Bird. A film which revolves around two characters, the first is Bailey (Nykiya Adams), a 12 year old girl, with a difficult home life and the second a mysterious stranger she meets who seems to have come from the mist named Bird (Franz Rogowski).
Bird is an interesting film, though not a perfect, it’s dotted with the occasional forced bit of dialogue and it has cleanness that at point distracts but overall they are only minor issues of a film which at its heart is a brilliant balancing act of two opposing forces embodied by our leads, urban heaviness and natures lightness.
These forces are in every pore of the film’s style. On one hand we have incredibly fluid and organic editing which actively responds to Bailey’s emotions and thoughts, shifting easily into memories or her video diaries. On the other hand we get scenes of naked brutality filled with domestic violence in which the camera simply does not let us escape, often pushing us closer, trapping us in the horror.
The clash in these two feelings culminates in an ending which is truly the film’s greatest achievement and one which can change the entire context of the film if you choose it to. Here you are given two interpretable endings: one filled with hope and magic or one with heartbreak and grimness that’ll have you in tears.
After seeing all the good and all the bad, the sun soaked fields and the abusive parents, the film asks what do you believe? Do you believe in blind hope or do you believe that nothing can ever truly change?
The choice is yours.
Review by Billy Newbery