Flow (2024)

By: Mike Ward on Saturday, February 22

PG Running Time: 85 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

Flow is one of the most thoughtful, creative, and immersive viewing experiences I have experienced in quite some time.
One of 2024’s best films and neck-and-neck with The Wild Robot as the best animated film of the year.
Gints Zilbalodis’ film finds the director also serving as writer, producer, composer, cinematographer, editor, and who knows what else. You can just see this film is a labor of love and you feel it in every scene and frame.

NO

This Latvian film is dialogue-free. Believe me when I tell you - you won’t notice. However, some audiences may be waiting for happy songs and wacky dialogue.
The overall message may feel somewhat ambiguous as to time, place, and what exactly is going on. Just let the film play out and draw your own interpretations. Some viewers won’t like this and prefer everything spelled out for them.
“Cats, capybaras, lemurs, and dogs don’t all exist in the same places.” Right. It’s an animated film. But tell me more.

OUR REVIEW

Neck-and-neck with The Wild Robot as 2024’s finest animated feature, it is hard not to fall in love with the tender and patient Latvian film Flow. A two-time Oscar nominee for Best Animated Feature and Best International Film at the 97th Academy Awards, the film is a wonder - whisking us away in a dialogue-free, yet captivating world as an orphaned cat simply tries to make it to higher (and safer) ground.

At an indiscriminate time in the future, a valley is overrun with rising floodwaters. Our main character, Cat, sees a herd of deer stampeding in the distance, with a surge of water rushing in behind them. As the waters arrive and rise, Cat keeps climbing and climbing to the very top of the highest structure he can find. Surviving the flood, Cat soon crosses paths with a curious labrador retriever, who in turn encounters a few other wayward dogs, and soon, all are on a boat floating away from the home they have known and toward somewhere new.

Hints at a world torn apart by climate change are present. Though perhaps this is an allegory for individuals forced to come together to overcome obstacles. Maybe the film is set on an abandoned planet? Has mankind disappeared? Zilbalodis lets us develop our own theories and ideas for what may be happening to Cat and the other animals we encounter. Whatever ambiguity may exist fails to take away from how we are drawn into the fascinating world these animals inhabit.

Quiet and immersive, Flow is mesmerizing. The animation may not be as crisp and clean as something you would see from Disney or Pixar, but that becomes part of the appeal. This is a film that fits the very definition of a labor of love for filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis. The film took more than five years to complete and was built, in part, from Aqua, a short film Zilbalodis produced in 2012. Flow finds him serving as director, co-writer, co-producer, cinematographer, and editor. He even created the musical score with composer Rihards Zaļupe, effectively ushering us into a world inhabited by Cat, Dog, those additional dogs, and eventually, a capybara, secretarybird, and lemur.

The film is full of discoveries - both big and small - and builds to a heightened level of mystery and intrigue most films seldom ever find. With the film dialogue-free, we get a different sensory experience. The sound design is tremendous and we become immersed in this unnamed place and time. Had an American film studio made Flow, I am sure Zilbalodis would have been given notes that the animals have to talk, cut witty jokes, and perhaps even sing a song or two. That’s why this is different. We are reminded that while those types of films have a place, great storytelling does not always need those bells and whistles to hook us into an adventure. Here, we become completely engrossed in Cat’s journey in simply trying to find a new place to call home.

One of the most impactful viewing experiences of 2024, Flow is funny, surprisingly emotional, and unforgettable. As it widens its reach, streaming on MAX days ahead of the 97th Academy Awards, audiences have the opportunity to find a film that is as powerful as it is unique. Zilbalodis has poured his heart and soul into this production, yet recognizes less is more when it comes to trusting an audience to understand nuance, deeper themes, while also letting us root for a cat who is as resilient as any hero you fill find in any movie released in recent years.

CAST & CREW

Directed by: Gints Zilbalodis
Written by: Gints Zilbalodis, Matīss Kaža (screenplay); Ron Dyens (adaptation)
Release Date: November 22, 2024
Sideshow / Janus Films

Flow is one of the most thoughtful, creative, and immersive viewing experiences I have experienced in quite some time.

One of 2024’s best films and neck-and-neck with The Wild Robot as the best animated film of the year.

Gints Zilbalodis’ film finds the director also serving as writer, producer, composer, cinematographer, editor, and who knows what else. You can just see this film is a labor of love and you feel it in every scene and frame.

This Latvian film is dialogue-free. Believe me when I tell you - you won’t notice. However, some audiences may be waiting for happy songs and wacky dialogue.

The overall message may feel somewhat ambiguous as to time, place, and what exactly is going on. Just let the film play out and draw your own interpretations. Some viewers won’t like this and prefer everything spelled out for them.

“Cats, capybaras, lemurs, and dogs don’t all exist in the same places.” Right. It’s an animated film. But tell me more.