Bird

In her latest film, director Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank) returns to the hardscrabble lives of Brits, the subject that established her career. Protagonist Bailey (newcomer Nykiya Adams) is a twelve-year-old girl forced into beyond-her-age maturity by ill-equipped parents. Her dad, Bug (Barry Keoghan), is focused on his upcoming wedding, while her mom lives in a seedy part of town with an abusive boyfriend. Bailey’s favorite activity is wandering the countryside filming animals, especially birds, on her phone. When she meets a free spirit in a skirt looking for his parents and coincidentally named Bird (Franz Rogowski), a bond forms and an adventure begins. Adams shines in the lead role, veering from petulance to empathy with grace, and Arnold deftly develops Bailey’s burgeoning friendship with Bird to explore various tensions within adolescent life, most importantly the guidance and nurturing that folks on the cusp of adulthood need.