As Ryan Lattanzio summarized in his IndieWire revew: Bird is not Arnold’s best film — how can you top the cross-country raptures of “American Honey” or the final synchronized dance to Nas in “Fish Tank”? But it’s certainly her most ambitious in terms of willingness to stretch her creative reach beyond the social-realist-only confines of some of her early work.

That’s a good way of looking at it. Andrea Arnold’s empathetic observation of youth, particularly those in hardscrabble circumstances, has always been spot-on, in much the same way as that of the Dardenne brothers, but with a very British flavor. Barry Keoghan, and newcomer, Nykiya Adams shone, as did Franz Rogowski, as Bird. Rogowski is a German actor who was born with a cleft lip. His cleft was surgically closed, resulting in a slight lisp. He first appeared on our screen (well, it was the previous screen, at MovieNight, in Sebastian Schipper’s Victoria… maybe time for another look?). His career has gone from strength to strength.

Since I had a surgery scheduled for 6am on Friday morning, it seemed sensible to move NewScreen to Wednesday this week. We had an unexpectedly great turnout tonight. Thanks everyone! See you next time.