FLOW is one of the great films of 2024. It’s probably one of the greatest animated films ever made. I suspect in five years it will be hailed as a classic.
A kind of fable, the film is the story of a cat who ends up on a boat with some other animals raveling across the world during a flood. It’s a tale of life on a grand scale told without dialog.
This is a a grand adventure. Set somewhere else at some other time and place where people are no longer around the film creates a world where anything is possible. Animals that shouldn't be together are. There are references to places here on earth, but nothing concrete. There are some magical creatures, and fantastic turns but it all makes absolute perfect emotional sense.
I know that everyone is going to have their say about the film. Countless podcasts and You Tube videos explaining a film that doesn’t have to be explained, but simply experienced, will be popping up soon. That we live in a time where everyone has to put out pieces where they explain what the director meant, or more likely saying how their take is the only right one, is a sad one. Everyone should be able to have the film mean what ever they want it to mean. FLOW needs to thrive however it thrives in the hearts of everyone who sees it.
As a work of art, this film is of the highest order. The images and storytelling are near perfect, not always in a brain logic sense but in a dead on heart sort of way. This film moved me viscerally and I wanted to to stop the film several times just because I was so overwhelmed that I wanted to just cry at the beauty of it all. (Several people behind me at the screening were loudly sobbing)
Cinema does not get much better than this.
Similar in some ways to director Gints Zilbalodis’ earlier AWAY because of the mystical journey, this is a vast jump in quality. This is film is a film where the student becomes the master. Everything here is nigh on perfect with the character design and animation being of a quality that few animators ever achieve. All you need to is watch the eyes of the cat, or any of the characters and you’ll be amazed. Its so good that you’ll wish that the filmmakers could get special Oscars for their work- or compete in the best performance category. I’m serious-the best performances of the year are all computer generated.
In some ways the film nay remind you of some questing computer games. Some games like MYST came to mind (and one person I spoke with after the screening listed others). And while I can see the influence perhaps in image referencing, I can’t say that the it is more than an influence. I say that because films are not games. We do not have control. The questing structure is as old as humanity. Additionally I have never been as invested and connected to a video game story or characters as I am here. There is a realness here that makes FLOW something greater than it’s influences.
In a weird way the film also feels like Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld. I can't say why, largely because it's been years since I last read the stories, but there is still something haunting me.
This film is any, and every, superlative you can think of. It is a film at the highest level of cinematic art. It will move you in ways you didn’t think were possible.
Highly recommended.
Look for FLOW to have a long life.
(And it should be noted that the film does have a post credits sequence. It’s brief but explains what happens to one character)
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