As a title, Flow refers to the central narrative of the movie—in which a black cat navigates its way through a flooded forest and city—yet the term nicely describes the animation style as well. Long sequences have been designed as a “single take,” so that no edits interrupt our experience of the cat’s adventure. Instead, our vantage point on the animal unceasingly floats around, above, and—when the poor creature falls in the water—below. This dynamism allows you to forgive the somewhat rudimentary renderings of the figures—at least in terms of the textures, as the movements of various animals are uncannily realistic. Aside from the cat, we also encounter a capybara, a lemur, and an exceptionally dopey dog. (Based on the characterizations here, I’m going to guess that Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis is a cat person.) There is no dialogue and the animals are given only occasional anthropomorphic tendencies, so that Flow feels like a combination of a nature documentary and a role-playing video game. As the waters continue to rise, it also appears to function as a global-warming parable, until a third act reveals it to be closer to the biblical story of Noah and the flood—harrowing, certainly, but also a beautiful promise of renewal.
(12/6/2024)
