‘Flow’ Review: The Rollercoaster Of The Year
Flow follows the unexpected journey of a black cat through a tsunami.
Between Dreamworks’ The Wild Robot and Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail, 2024 has given the chance for many animated films to shine past what’s traditionally expected of them. Latvian filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis crafts a thrilling adventure following a simple cat in his animated movie. Read our Flow review.
I had the wonderful opportunity to screen the critically acclaimed animated movie at the Chicago International Film Festival this year. Flow, which is already receiving enough buzz for a Best Animated Feature nomination at the 2025 Oscars, truly blew me away (the film has also been submitted as Latvia’s choice for Best International Feature).
The 3D-animated feature follows various animal characters on an unexpected journey through a tsunami. The main character; a black cat; befriends a Labrador, a capybara, and a whale as they skillfully try to escape to safety. What would normally be a dynamic of animals that avoid each other turns into a story of shared empathy.
What really interests me about this movie is its ability to keep me engaged. The film had no dialogue and relied solely on watching the characters’ interactions to advance the plot. Striking visuals and breathtaking scenography highlight the screenplay’s amazing attempt at crafting a narrative.
Flow’s story and visuals do remind me of one film in particular, however: Life of Pi. The stories share similar plot beats, including scenes of the characters lost at sea, bioluminescent bays, and borderline-religious islands. However, these tropes were bound to cross over given the overarching theme of the stories was to see how far kindness and empathy can persevere in life-or-death situations.
Nevertheless, the lack of dialogue and choice not to personify the animals helped Flow stay distinct from Life of Pi. The amount of life in this movie is vibrant, and the 85 minutes pass by smoothly! Definitely watch this in theaters and support independent, animated, cinema!
Flow is directed by Gints Zilbalodis and written by Zibalodis and Matīss Kaža. The film releases December 6th in US theatres.
If you liked this Flow review be sure to check out more reviews here at Feature First.
