End of the year 2024 Movie Journal

[Chris Knipp]

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BIRD (Andrea Arnold 2024). A teen girl wandering a slummy rural area between two parents, searching security that's lacking, naturalism winding up with a strong supernatural solution where a man called "Bird" (Franz Rogowski) turns out the be a giant bird, when needed, and a little bird carries a note up to a second floor window. There is another good role for Barry Keoghan as a multi-tattooed nutter who sells hallucigenic frog slime to fund his impulsive marriage, and some vivid non-actor kids. Arnold's sense of the danger of disorderly parents is here, and this was a tough, complex shoot for Arnold, but Peter Bradshaw's right when he says, "it’s a minor Arnold, with fluency and energy." I have wanted to see it since all the publicity from Cannes. Availble on Apple, Amazon and Fandango. But first see ARnold's important 2009 FISH TANK. Metacritic rating: 74%.