Flow
I may have mentioned before that I am allergic to Academy Award winning films. They tend to be way overhyped, underwhelming, or outright boring. To me, anyway, YMMV. I learned a long time ago to not even bother watching something the Academy deems exceptional. But then I did, and I sorta regretted it for a while.
This animated Latvian, French, and Belgium production with TWENTY TWO production companies listed at the top (you better believe I counted them) is what might seem a simple minded story of a little black cat, but there are a lot of deeper messages. Not being the symbolism type, since my earliest days in school, a lot of it flowed right over my head. (I had to do that. No choice.) I read some pages about it online, one of which got what actually happened utterly wrong, and there was a lot about the impermanence of water, fear flowing to trust, the effects of chaos, yada yada yada.
The story begins with a cute black kitty who is afraid of everything, especially the pack of dogs that chase him, because dogs, and spends each night sleeping on the bed of an abandoned house. There are innumerable cat statues of various sizes in the vicinity of the house, all pattered on this kitty. One day while he’s out and about a huge flood washes over him, inundates the land and eventually covers his house. As the story progresses, the kitty finds himself in the company of other animals as his travels continue. There are no people anywhere, and there is no spoken dialogue.
The whole world mostly covered by water thing reminded me of that old Kevin Costner movie Waterworld, which I always liked because it’s so, so dumb. There is a lot of daring do from the kitty and his companions, and an increasingly fantastical feel. That reached a point where I seriously didn’t understand what happened in that scene. I interpreted it very sadly, but one of the people online made it into a happy, transcendent moment. This is one of those films that means different things to different people, apparently. But that person is wrong and I’m right. The end.
There is cuteness and pathos, and interesting choices by the filmmaker on how to portray a really odd grouping of disparate creatures. The animation is very pretty, with a not quite photorealistic tone and great color and movement. Music throughout does a great job of enhancing the storytelling without being intrusive. The plot moves slowly, but does continue to move until a very abrupt – and of course mysterious to me – end. Anthropomorphism is a bit of a thing, and I had a really hard time with that because otherwise the animals are all portrayed as just what they are. The cat acts like a cat, the capybara acts like I expect a capybara probably acts. Of course, I do not understand why the filmmakers messed around with that.
I decided to sit quietly and think about the film for a while, and while at the table quietly playing a game of solitaire, a wave of sadness came over me and I cried a bit. No idea why. Maybe there were subliminals embedded in the film that changed my brain chemistry. Maybe it was the last scene. I’m not going to watch again to test it.
It actually is a hopeful, mostly sweet and pretty film with great characters and a plot you will undoubtedly understand better than me. Weird sadness aside, I will say I liked it well enough to recommend giving it a try, even if it is up for an Academy Award.
Triggers: nothing outrageous
Available on: Max, YouTube premium, Sling TV, amazon prime, Fandango at Home
LINKS:
CFR: In Addition
This movie does look beautiful. But I will not see it. Probably. I do not like end of the world movies and my heart cannot take the vulnerability of animals. Even if they are animated.
Thank you for writing such a beautiful review, Cranky. I know how much you love cats.
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