Bailey lives with her brother Hunter and her father Bug, who raises them alone in a squat in northern Kent. Bug doesn’t have much time to devote to them. Bailey looks for attention and adventure elsewhere.

It’s been 8 years since Andrea Arnold’s last fiction feature (the outstanding ‘American Honey’) with one documentary in between (‘Cow’), so it’s great to see her back with ‘Bird’. Returning to the subject matter and setting from her second movie ‘Fish Tank’, ‘Bird’ is a coming of age movie with a dash of magical realism, starring newcomer Nykiya Adams in the central role. Support comes from Barry Keoghan as her father Bug, a broadly decent but immature man, and Franz Rogowski as a mysterious man known as Bird that she comes across in the fields near the run down building where she lives.

‘Bird’ begins with Adams’ character Bailey (who is 12 years old) being confronted with the news that her father plans to marry his new, short term girlfriend, news that she is not remotely prepared for. Angry at the news, she runs off and spends time with her half brother Hunter and his friends, who have been acting as vigilantes on the estate, before she bumps into Bird. Bird has been searching for his parents, specifically his mother, who he hasn’t seen in years, and Bailey decides to help him – when she’s not interrupted by Bug tracking her down and grounding her. The movie blends social realism, magical realism, British kitchen sink and coming of age drama together, and how successful you deem this blend to be will likely determine your overall thoughts on the movie.

I’ll avoid saying too much more about the plot as there are surprising developments that you will either get on board with or be turned away by, depending on how invested you are in the story by this point. For my part, I was invested, largely by Nykiya Adams compelling portrayal, although I didn’t think this was Arnold’s most successful movie at drawing together disparate themes. ‘Bird’ is a welcome return to fiction filmmaking from Arnold, even if it’s ambition isn’t quite matched by the quality we’ve come to expect from one of our finest directors. It’s available for home streaming on Mubi now.

Rating: 3/5

Directed By: Andrea Arnold

Starring: Nykiya Adams, Barry Keoghan, Franz Rogowski, Jason Buda, Jasmine Jobson, Frankie Box, James Nelson-Joyce, Joanne Matthews and Sarah Beth Harber

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt28277817/