Flow: A Review - The Cat's Meow
/****THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!****
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
My Recommendation: SEE IT. A very compelling and unique animated feature that can be enjoyed by people of all ages on multiple levels.
Flow, written and directed by Gints Zilbalodis, is an arthouse, animated feature from Latvia that chronicles the journey of an unnamed dark grey cat.
The film, which is nominated for Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature Film at this year’s Academy Awards, is notable because it contains no dialogue and is completely rendered on the free and open-sourced software Blender.
When I was a kid, I had a dog…a great dog…named Scooter. He was a Gordon Setter/Bernese Mountain Dog/St. Bernard mix…an absolute behemoth and a complete and total gentle giant. The loveliest dog you ever could’ve had the pleasure to know and the best friend I’ve ever had.
I bring up Scooter because once as a little kid I decided to follow him for a day – this was back in olden times when people let their dogs - and their kids, run free and wild off of leashes. So I, by myself, followed Scooter as he made his daily rounds one afternoon. I kept a good distance from him so he didn’t know I was following him – or at least he let me think he didn’t know I was following him.
Scooter went on quite a journey that day, deep into the woods on a trek only he could understand, with little old me spying intently on him. We went into and out of the woods, across fields, over streams, through muck, mire, brush and construction sights. I don’t know how many miles we covered that day but it was a magical mystery tour for me and probably just another day at the dog office for Scooter.
Which brings me back to Flow…which essentially does the same thing I did with Scooter except with a cat and with much, much higher stakes.
Flow is a sort of wondrous movie. It is a simple film yet is filled with complexities. It is both an endearing dramatic tale of a cat and his friends and also a magical realist biblical mediation that is overflowing with profundities for those with the eyes to see them.
I watched the film with my young 9-year-old son and he posed lots of questions throughout…but was more saying these questions out loud to himself rather than expecting me to give him answers. The movie entertained him but it also really made him think. I was a very proud Papa indeed when he himself blurted out the biblical sub-text out loud to me before I ever articulated it…a sub-text to which many adults would be completely oblivious.
I bring up my son only because Flow is not the typical talking cat movie aimed at kids that you catch at the cineplex or on Disney +. In other words, Flow isn’t Garfield, but it is a film kids can still enjoy as a compelling animated movie without grasping its philosophical depths.
Adults can enjoy it too, but on a much deeper level, as the film touches upon a lot of pretty heavy philosophical ideas and leaves a good deal of room for interpretation. One of my favorite parts of the film was when it was over and me and my wife and son had a hearty discussion about it.
I’ve been intentionally vague about the plot, setting and characters in Flow because, as is my wont, I do not want to spoil the experience of watching the film for anyone who will give it a go. I knew nothing about the movie prior to watching and I think that ignorance was bliss and heightened my enjoyment.
I will note a couple things though.
First, the animation, which is done using Blender, a free and open-source software, is definitely uneven. The scenery and setting look gorgeous and are gloriously designed, but the animals are very hit or miss. Some animals look great and others look really cheap and shoddy.
Secondly, the film doesn’t entirely confine itself to the rules of the world it creates at its start – hence the magical realism aspect of the story. For example, and I won’t give specifics, the animals don’t always behave exactly as animals would behave – I’ll say no more than that. This is not a criticism per se, it is just something that knocked me off balance at first until I got on board with it.
Flow is still playing in some theatres, but it is also available on VOD, which is where I watched it. It cost something like $5.99 to rent, and we had three people watching so that’s a good deal.
The movie runs an hour and twenty-five minutes – and is captivating the entire run time…and an important note…stick around through the credits until the very end as the movie isn’t over until one small final scene plays out after the credits.
In conclusion, if you have kids, watch Flow with them. If you don’t have kids…watch Flow with another adult or by yourself. It isn’t the best film of the year, but it is the film this year that I’ve thought the most about after having watched it.
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