youth

A 22-year-old youth leader at a Van Nuys church has died from injuries sustained in a collision Friday night on Sherman Way that stemmed from an apparent street race between a Rolls-Royce and Mercedes-Benz.

But one day, soon after his family moved from Hawaii to Las Vegas, his new youth football team was in need of a quarterback.

If it’s too much to ask of Arnold that her bid for heightened naturalism make a ton of sense, “Bird” at least maintains a heartbeat of ache and affection for youth in all its rudeness, revealing a filmmaker who isn’t afraid of losing her claws if she traffics in the thing with feathers.

A raw fable about looking up instead of feeling down, “Bird” shows writer-director Andrea Arnold back in a familiar milieu of cramped youth on the periphery, making do with what little is available, seesawing between explosive anger and playful respite.

There’s also a toddler in this ramshackle flat, so be sure to table your judgment about youth raising children from multiple partners.