★★★★ - THE POST
- Flow might be one of the greatest animated films of the last few decades -
Flow is set in an unnamed part of the world, in an unnamed time. There have been people here - and they have left deserted houses and battered sail boats behind. But for now, the only living creatures around - on land anyway - are deer, dogs, birds, capybaras and lemurs, and one small and endlessly bold and inquisitive black cat.
There has been a flood, that much we can tell. And before the film ends the rivers and seas will rise again. But Flow is not necessarily a fable of a post-climate change world. It isn't here to preach and it doesn't come with any particular lessons attached. It is just a story about some animals and the ways in which they stay alive. It is also - I think - one of the very best animated films I have ever seen.
As we watch - and you will be entranced from the first frame - the nameless cat wanders away from what might have been its owners' house and into the surrounding forest. A pack of dogs take an interest and the cat flees. And from that point on, Flow never really stops moving, as the cat takes refuge in a boat that has drifted close to the shore, and is then carried downstream with an assortment of other four-legged and two-winged passengers.
Listen. Anyone who's ever been owned by a cat or a dog will recognise the genius and the heart that has gone into making Flow. Writer and director Gints Zilbalodis (he made the festival smash-hit Away in 2019) sees and respects the essential natures of his on-screen animals. The cat in Flow acts and behaves exactly as every cat I've ever known would have. It is curious, solitary, aggressive when threatened - and always cautious.
But the cat can also learn to share a space if there's no other option, and even work within a group if that is the only way to catch a meal or scare off an attacker. All of that is authentic cat behaviour that I've seen for myself, and I bet you have too.
This is a beautiful, quietly haunting and mesmerising film. I saw Flow a week back, at a preview screening that was mostly packed with parents and young children, and it was pretty obvious, during the movie and listening to the chatter as we left, that the adults in the audience had been just as impressed and entranced by the film as the tamariki.
Flow is made without dialogue or songs. Although there is some wonderful music, which Zilbalodis also co-composed. Sheesh.
There are no celebrity voices, cute comic moments or any hint of anthropomorphising here at all. After a life time of animated animal stories - some of which have been great - it took a minute to adjust to a film in which the animals just act like animals would. And also to realise that Flow is so acutely observed and written, that even without conversation or narration, the shifting relationships between the animals on screen are all still perfectly apparent, and that a story is unfolding in a concise and easy to follow way.
The genius of Flow is that Zilbalodis makes this incredible feat of design and writing seem unforced and somehow effortless.
As I was tapping this review into my laptop, the news came in that Flow had won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature. I'm not surprised that it has. Even up against gems like The Wild Robot, Memoir of a Snail and the new Wallace and Gromit instalment, Flow is still the stand-out animated film of the last 12 months.
You could even argue that in its quiet, unflashy and perfectly calibrated way, this is one of the greatest animated films of the last few decades.
Even if you don't have any children to take, go and have a look.
- Graeme Tuckett, THE POST
Flow is now playing at Light House Cinema!