(121224)
This has been an excellent year for family films. In just the last six months
moviegoers have been treated to Wicked and such beautiful animated features as
the smart but conventional
Inside Out 2, the surreal and arty
Robot Dreams,
and the imaginative and lively
Wild Robot.
Now Americans have the opportunity to see the more exotic Flow, which is in
limited release, and it is absolutely stunning. With the exception of
Inside Out 2,
all of these films have been heavily influenced by the work of the Japanese film
maker, Hayao Miyazaki who is often considered the greatest living animator who
is best known for Howl’s Moving Castle and Spirited Away.
Flow is a superb and lovingly done animated film that combines both modern and
more traditional techniques; it used both hand drawn images as well as the art
styles of GameCube and PS2 X-Box.
This highly acclaimed French/Belgium/Latvia production was selected for the 2024
Academy Awards representing Latvia representing it for Best International Film.
The film was also selected as Un Certain Regard in the 2024 Cannes Film.
Flow gets its title because it follows the trajectory of a mass of water that is
constantly moving. The story also follows a group of animals affected by the
water movement. The director even characterized the film as “an intuitive flow
of fantasy.”
The film is unconventional and it is one of the year’s most experimental
animated films. Like
Robot Dreams it is devoid of dialogue but the animals speak
volumes with facial expressions and body language. They also make sounds like
real animals and the film uses real recordings of many furry critters. The film has a rather simple basic plot and it is quite episodic. But this loose plot
allows it to better capture the spontaneity, joy and energy of everyday life
better than any other recent film. This also captures a childlike sense of
wonder better than any recent film, although perhaps not as much as the
Spielberg classic. ET: The Extraterrestrial.
Flow focuses on a small group of animals that meet by chance and slowly become
allies and eventually friends. Although they are all silent animals cartoon
figures, they are often developed better than recent Marvel/Disney characters.
The main character is a cute cat with an expressive face that does not have a
name, but he always acts like a real cat although he is slightly humanized. I do
not know the gender of the animal so I will call her “she”. She spends most of
her time just trying to survive on a day-to-day basis. The tiny cat seems lonely
and very vulnerable as it wanders the huge forest alone. But she soon encounters
a wild pack of dogs that chase her intending to do her harm after she steals
their food.
But there is a huge almost Biblical sized flood that wreaks havoc and constantly
puts the animals at risk. In a weird way the basic premise of the film is like
Walking Dead because it shows that beings that are normally enemies or rivals
might join forces to survive after an apocalyptic event.
To escape the flood water the cat jumps on a boat which is occupied by a
peaceful and highly social capybara (in real life capybaras are known to be very
peaceful and social) who is not hesitant to share his home as well as a Labrador
retriever that was once part of a pack that chased and threatened the cat. The
dog turns out to be more benevolent than his more savage pack friends and allies
himself with the cat. They are soon joined by a secretary bird but the cat
initially distrusts him because another secretary bird had tried to carry him
away to devour him and he narrowly escaped. But he eventually learns the bird
means him no harm and it usually just ignores him.
The animals find they have mutual interests and spend more time working
together. For instance, they help each other survive a thunderstorm and the
capybara and lemur join forces to gather little knick-knacks in a basket to keep
themselves amused. This causes some conflict because the lemur is a bit
territorial and he gets mad when the other animals are careless with his things
(they lose a ball almost right away.)
The portrayal of the animals is superior to most animated animals because they
are never Disney-fied and they act more like their real-life counterparts than
typical animated beasts Also, although the film inspires emotion in its viewers
it is never over sentimentalized.
If I have one complaint, it’s a similar criticism of the Aretha Franklin concert
film,
Amazing Grace (2018). While both films are nearly perfect, they also
seemed unnecessarily short and I wanted to see a whole lot more in both cases.
At today’s high film ticket prices, these films should have been longer than 87
or 88 minutes. They could have at least added some documentary footage or a
cartoon short.
I felt slightly disappointed when Flow ended because the experience of seeing
it, which was often transcendent, was so brief. I wanted to see much more and
could have watched this film for several more hours. Hopefully, there will be an
extended DVD or streaming cut.
|
|
Directed & Written by:
|
Gints Zilbalodis (with a writing assist by
Matiss
Kaza) |
|
|
Starring the Voices of:
|
No one, this film is silent |
|
|
Released: |
09/27/2024 (USA) |
|
|
|
Rating:
|
PG for peril and thematic elements |
|
|
Available On:
|
At press time was playing at selected theatres
and it will stream on Amazon Prime, Fandango at
Home, and Google Play Movies/TV |
|
|
|
For more
writings by Vittorio Carli go to
www.artinterviews.org and
www.chicagopoetry.org.
His latest book "Tape Worm Salad with Olive Oil for Extra Flavor" is also
available.
Email
carlivit@gmail.com
See the film trailer of the Lee Groban movie
directed by Nancy Bechtol featuring Vittorio Carli.
See
https://youtu.be/tWQf-UruQw
Come to the New Poetry Show on the first Saturday of every month at Tangible
Books in
Bridgeport from 7-9 at 3324 South Halsted.
This is now a monthly show featuring Poetry/Spoken Word, some Music, Stand Up
and Performance Art and hosted by Mister Carli. For more information e-mail:
carlivit@gmail.com for details
Upcoming features at the Poetry Show:
January 4 – Dami Andonova, Matt Churney, Dina Marie Marguerite Patrick-Stewart,
and Eric Allen Yankee
|
|
FLOW © 2024 Arte France Cinema
All Rights Reserved
Review © 2024 Alternate Reality, Inc. |
|
|
|