Vague Visages’ Bird review contains minor spoilers. Andrea Arnold’s 2024 movie features Barry Keoghan, Franz Rogowski and Nykiya Adams. Check out the VV home page for more film reviews, along with cast/character summaries, streaming guides and complete soundtrack song listings.

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Part coming-of-age drama, part quirky foray into magical realism, Bird is a difficult film to nail down. Written and directed by Andrea Arnold, the 2024 movie sometimes doesn’t seem to know exactly what it’s trying to communicate. Despite this lack of clarity, the filmmaker imbues Bird with a tremendous sense of warmth, bolstered by the mature performance of her young star Nykiya Adams, who is as self-assured as her character Bailey is wracked with self-doubt and distrust. Although Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski headline the production as Bug and Bird, respectively, their young co-lead walks away as the undisputed star.

Adams plays Bailey, a lost girl in a modern day Neverland where the adults are so functionally ill-suited to her needs that they may as well not exist at all. The young protagonist lives with her father, Bug (Keoghan), whose biggest dream in life is to make money off the slime of a drug toad so he can afford the wedding his lady love deserves. The elder characters seem extremely devoted to getting Bailey on board with the wedding, complete with a sequined bridesmaid jumpsuit, but not so much interested in helping her navigate the transitions of their changing family. On the cusp of adolescence and desperately trying to find a place for herself, Adams’ character has more than enough to be getting on with. 

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In the absence of parental guidance, Bailey and all the other kids in Bird are committed in their own misguided ways to building a world better than the one bestowed upon them by adults. And most importantly, they vow to protect each other. This is evident through Bailey’s brother (Jason Buda as Hunter) and his involvement in a vigilante group that punishes members of their community for abusing their spouses and children, and also in the young protagonist’s determination to keep her younger siblings — the children of her absentee mother — safe from the new man in their house.

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When Bailey meets Bird (Franz Rogowski) — a strange man who tries to track down his long-lost family — her natural instincts to help and protect are met with something she’s not used to receiving from the adults in her life: genuine emotional support and stability. As the characters embark on a journey to find Bird’s family, they develop a deep bond with one another, even as Bird’s origins — and even his status as a full human — remain in question.

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Throughout the entirety of Bird, Adams shows remarkably strong chemistry with both Rogowski and Keoghan. It’s her presence that lends poignancy to each of the character relationships, rather than the more established actors doing the heavy lifting with their inexperienced co-stars (which is not to say that Rogowski and Keoghan don’t deliver interesting performances by embracing different types of eccentricities). Adams carves out a unique relationship with every character she shares the screen with, crafting a mature, nurturing presence that is connected to the earth in a way that makes the young protagonist a natural companion for Bird. They each have the fragility of a kicked puppy, but they are also both defined by their pure, animalistic reserves of inner strength.

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There’s a lot going on in Bird, and not all of it gels completely together. There’s a charm to the fact that the film cultivates an enticing sense of magical realism without feeling the need to over-explain the title character and his bizarre origins. But as Bird goes on, the movie gets muddled in a way that makes it feel as though it’s struggling to cobble together a coherent third act. And given the comments that Arnold made at Cannes about how hard she found it to make Bird the film she wanted it to be in the editing room, I suspect this may be the case.

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Bird represents yet another intriguing coming-of-age film from Arnold, who has proven herself adept at making the awkward adolescent journey incredibly cinematic. She couldn’t ask for a better leading lady than Adams, the drama’s shining star who brings so much warmth and empathy to the role of Bailey. No matter how Bird is ultimately received, Arnold’s young lead deserves a long and fruitful career as an actor. Although Keoghan and Rogowski are very much in the shadow of their female co-star, they are supporting actors in the truest sense of the word, using their skill to build the young actress up. This blend of mature, self-assured adult experience and the electric spark of Adams’ raw talent makes Bird a joy to watch, in spite of its narrative flaws.

Audrey Fox (@theaudreyfox) is a features editor and film/television critic at Looper, with bylines at RogerEbert.com, Nerdist, /Film and IGN, amongst other outlets. She has been blessed by the tomato overlords with their coveted seal of approval. Audrey received her BA in film from Clark University and her MA in International Relations from Harvard University. When she’s not watching movies, Audrey loves historical non-fiction, theater, traveling and playing the violin (poorly).

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