Bird

Andrea Arnold broke her own habit here. A director who works in social realism and avoids decoration, she opened a fabular, supernatural line in this film, which contains more computer effects than all her previous work; she has also said she dislikes it being called magic realism. Bailey is twelve and lives in a squat in Kent. Her father Bug is covered in tattoos, is barely more than a boy himself, and is preparing to get married. As Bailey enters adolescence she can find no purchase either at home or outside it. Then she meets a strange outsider called Bird. Nykiya Adams plays Bailey in her first film; as in all Arnold's work the cast mixes in non-professionals. Barry Keoghan plays the father and Franz Rogowski plays Bird. It was shot in Gravesend on the Thames estuary, southeast of London. It screened at Cannes, where the cast received a seven-minute standing ovation, and MUBI released it on 8 November 2024. Who it is for: viewers who like Arnold's handheld camera, real locations and writing about adolescence. Who it is not for: anyone who wants her to stay in realism. The supernatural strand divided critics, and the tone slips in places.