Bird challenges societal dogma.

Andrea Arnold’s latest is ostensibly about — emphasis on ostensibly — a mostly healthy relationship between . . . a middle-aged man (FRAAAANZ Rogowski, who would’ve been a good Bond villain back in the day) and . . . a . . . [gulp] . . . pubescent girl?

Huh?!

In the current climate?!?!

Now, their connection is wholly nonsexual, and he never expresses even a lick of romantic interest in her. But the movie is not set in a wholesome fantasy land free of adult dangers; the story is the opposite of whimsical, bordering closer to poverty porn. Possible pedophilia isn’t merely hinted at; it’s an explicit threat within the characters’ oppressively brutal reality. 

To insert a sunnier portrait of a potentially fraught relationship into Bird’s harshest world. . . very few artists would dare to walk the tightrope over such treacherously delicate territory. 

Andrea Arnold, thy name is very few.