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Throughout the history of the medium, film has attempted to portray the goings-on of everyday life. Some of the best examples show the lives of the disenfranchised to interpret the systems of habitual inequality in society. Perhaps the most notable is “Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles,” ranked the greatest film of all time by British film magazine Sight and Sound in 2022.

British writer-director Andrea Arnold engages with this tradition in her latest film, “Bird.” Arnold, known for her 2016 film “American Honey” and her direction of seven episodes of “Big Little Lies,” uses a fine-tooth comb to examine social and economic issues in modern-day British slums. She mixes realism with a tinge of mysticism that, while it may not strike at a larger point about contemporary society, still astounds in its portrayal of contemporary life. Various subplots and themes make “Bird” feel scattered, but it remains constant in showing the messiness of our daily emotions and routines.

We follow the story of 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams) and her experiences with her separated parents, Bug (Barry Keoghan) and Peyton (Jasmine Jobson), a gang she is involved with and her new companion, Bird (Franz Rogowski). The camera sticks with Bailey throughout the whole film and adapts to her emotions at almost all times.

In the opening shots, the camera movements feel calm; there are smooth movements as Bailey films birds flying with her phone. But once Bug picks her up to go home, the camera becomes shaky, and the compositions sometimes seem incomprehensible.

The film leans into this emotional realism, even when the titular Bird shows up and slowly builds a friendship with Bailey. The two embark on their own adventure trying to find Bird’s father.

“Bird” doesn’t stop at trying to be realistic. It attempts to show how we portray our emotions in the 21st century. Bailey’s phone drives the plot, whether she uses it to document her interest in birds, to ask her half-brother’s gang for help or to record the abusive behavior of her mother’s new boyfriend. Arnold demonstrates curiosity in how such a ubiquitous object can be a springboard for understanding our own feelings.

Arnold goes further by showing how a phone stores, interprets and potentially distorts memory. Bailey’s videos reappear later in the movie, but they unfold in rapid flashbacks as she remembers the moments in real-time. It’s a fascinating wrinkle that deepens her journey to self-enlightenment and empowerment.

But, the movie starts to struggle once it delves into other subplots. Bailey looks after her siblings with her mother, all while she maintains a healthy relationship with Bug as he plans to get married and she goes on her own path of self-discovery with Bird, who shows her a metaphorical way out of her circumstances. The two-hour runtime drags at times when Bailey jumps back and forth between these relationships, giving the film a sweeping nature that contradicts its moments of precise introspection.

Bailey’s interests in the everyday free-wheeling paths of pigeons and crows represent the form of liberation she desires. Arnold has done this in earlier films, as her previous female leads in “American Honey” and “Fish Tank” observe and idolize the freedom of animals as a contrast to their own bleak circumstances. In her new friend, played gracefully by Rogowski, Bailey finds a free-spirited roamer trying to understand himself and the world, and by the end of the film, their relationship takes on magical proportions.

Arnold lands on a conclusion that tries to combat the systematic circumstances Bailey and her family find themselves in. But it falls flat as this message materializes only as vague mystical escapism from real plights. It’s not that these themes don’t hit emotionally; they just don’t feel developed.

Despite these shortcomings, Arnold excels at directing human relationships and emotions scene-to-scene. Adams, the newcomer, and Rogowski understand the interiority of their characters and how to show their daily lives. Though “Bird” may not be a pristine example of independent cinema, it remains an above-average work that boldly attempts to show life as it is in the 21st century, which can’t be said about Arnold’s contemporaries.

Published on November 19, 2024 at 9:00 pm

Contact Henry: henrywobrien1123@gmail.com