BIRD

Twelve-year-old Bailey lives with her single dad Bug (a wild Barry Keoghan) and brother Hunter in a squat in North Kent, England. Bug doesn’t have much time for his kids, and Bailey, who is approaching puberty, seeks attention and adventure elsewhere. Acclaimed director Andrea Arnold (FISH TANK, AMERICAN HONEY) returns and upends her gritty council-estate drama milieu, intertwining brutality and transcendence into a modern fairy tale that is very much her own. The film is both more raw and more fantastical than her previous works. Nykiya Adams is a terrific discovery in her role as the youngster and Franz Rogowski plays the mysterious titular free spirit who may have some avian characteristics of his own. The top-notch cinematography is by Robbie Ryan, who last worked on POOR THINGS.