It’s been a while since we’ve seen a narrative feature film from acclaimed director Andrea Arnold. In fact, her last feature was 2016’s “American Honey.” Sure, she’s done some TV work and a documentary since, but we really have been waiting to see a new narrative feature from Arnold. Thankfully, that’s what we get with the new film, “Bird.”
READ MORE: ‘Bird’ Review: Franz Rogowski Shines In Arnold’s Beautiful Coming Of Age Tale [Cannes]
As seen in the trailer for “Bird,” the film follows the story of a young girl who lives with her chaotic single dad and her brother. But her life gets turned upside down when a mysterious stranger, Bird, enters the picture.
The cast includes Barry Keoghan, Franz Rogowski, Nykiya Adams, and Jason Buda. As mentioned, the film is written and directed by Andrea Arnold.
We saw the film during its run at this year’s Cannes, and in our review, we said, “Much like Katie Jarvis in ‘Fish Tank’ and Sasha Lane in ‘American Honey,’ Arnold extracts another career-making performance out of her young protagonist with Adams. The newcomer encompasses the emotional shifts in this one very formative week in Bailey’s life with such grace, effectively communicating both the boisterousness of rebellion and the fragility of insecurity.”
“Bird” arrives in theaters on November 8. You can watch the trailer below.
Here’s the synopsis:
The long-awaited return to fiction filmmaking from Academy Award-winner Andrea Arnold (American Honey, Fish Tank), BIRD is a tender, striking and extraordinarily surprising coming-of-age fable about marginalised life in the fringes of contemporary society. 12-year-old Bailey (astounding newcomer Nykiya Adams) lives with her devoted but chaotic single dad Bug (Barry Keoghan, Saltburn) and wayward brother Hunter in a squat in Gravesend, north Kent. Approaching puberty and seeking attention and adventure, Bailey’s fractured home life is transformed when she encounters Bird (Franz Rogowski, Passages), a mysterious stranger on a journey of his own. A wondrous portrait of the transition from childhood to adolescence that remains grounded in her typically empathetic social realism, Arnold’s latest strides to the wildly poetic rhythm of her own drum.