Watery World

Film: Flow (Straume)
Format: Streaming video from Hulu Plus on Fire!

Of the seven Oscar categories I watch every year, Best Animated Feature is one that is really special. The reason is that over and over we are treated to some really unique and beautiful films in this category, films that, assuming you could make the equivalent film live-action, would never get a moment’s consideration. Writers and directors can do some experimental things in animated films that they couldn’t otherwise do, and every year, we are treated to a film that is unique. These are the films that expand how we think about animation and about film itself. In previous years, Flee, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, and Loving Vincent have filled this role. For this year’s Oscars, that film is Flow (Straume in the Latvian).

Flow is a visual feast, a film that contains no real dialogue and in fact no human characters. There’s not so much a plot as there is a series of actions and events that happen to a small, black cat in a post-apocalyptic world where it appears that humanity has disappeared and where some manner of cataclysm seems like a regular event. We don’t know what happened, and we’re never really going to get that information. Whatever got rid of all the humans happened in the past at some point, but not so long ago. Many signs of human civilization still exist.

As the film starts, the cat encounters a group of dogs and steals a fish from them. As the dogs pursue, they are all overtaken by a herd of deer and other animals who are running from a gigantic wave. The wave hits and our cat struggles back to the surface, eventually reaching higher ground, but the water level continues to rise. As the cat is threatened by the rising water, it jumps into a passing boat currently holding a capybara. After an encounter or two with secretary birds and a mutated whale, the cat and the capybara add a ring-tailed lemur to the crew, and from there eventually locate the yellow lab who was chasing the cat earlier.

The group sails through areas that were clearly lived in by humans. There are statues and cabins, for instance. The cabins that we see contain a number of things, some of which appear to be more fragile, which may indicate that the humans haven’t been gone for too long, but this is never really explained. In that sense, Flow comes from the point of view of the animals, who clearly wouldn’t have any knowledge of what happened to the humans at some time in the past.

Flow doesn’t really have a plot. There are a series of events the cat, capybara, lemur, and yellow lab deal with and survive, much of this floating in a boat that is seaworthy if a bit old and damaged. This is not really about narrative, but about the survival of the animals and the animation, which is truly lovely.

The animation is worth talking about in detail because Flow was made over the course of years on an absolute shoestring budget. All of the animation was done with the free software package Blender, and it’s a hell of an endorsement for that software. The film is just under 90 minutes long, and there are no deleted scenes. Everything created is used in the film.

Movies like Flow are why I watch Oscar categories. This is the kind of film that people should be exposed to, and I love how much acclaim this is getting, because it’s a true labor of love, and it’s nice to see that pay off. I want director/screenwriter Gints Zilbalodis to make more films like this, sort of a Latvian version of Tomm Moore.

Flow almost certainly won’t win the Oscar for Best Animated film, but it should (my opinion right now) as the only animated film to also be nominated for Best International Feature.

Flow is absolutely a movie that children can watch, but it doesn’t feel specifically like a movie for children. It feels important because of what it is, and I love that it was nominated. It’s unlikely I would have chosen to watch this on my own, and I’m pleased that I had a chance to watch it. There are going to be immediate thoughts of films like Waterworld (hence my title) or Homeward Bound or even Life of Pi come to mind, but Flow is its own animal and should be respected as such.

Why to watch Flow: It’s chef’s kiss gorgeous.
Why not to watch: No good reason. Let this wrap itself over you.