thing with feathers

Cumberbatch, along with his SunnyMarch production company, has been leaning slightly toward “European sort of world cinema” with his latest projects, including “The Thing With Feathers, which premieres at this week’s Sundance Film Festival, and Netflix’s “Eric” and “Roses.”

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.

The “Karma” singer and the “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers” author are distant relatives, specifically “6th cousins, three times removed.”

Even after movie success started to come his way, with roles in Ken Loach’s “The Wind That Shakes the Barley,” Boyle’s “Sunshine” and Wes Craven’s “Red Eye,” among others, he continued to work in theater, collaborating with Walsh on “Misterman,” “Ballyturk” and “Grief Is the Thing With Feathers.”

Which is, as the poet Emily Dickinson teaches us, “the thing with feathers.”