Flow

It's called FLOW because my tears FLOW into the OCEAN of this movie causing it to RISE and put all the CUTE, LITTLE animals in PERIL. I'm a monster. This isn't even a sad movie really, at least it's not trying to make you cry outright. The journey is fairly simple, a little black cat tries to escape an ever rising ocean by hopping onto a boat with a bunch of other animals. Your standard "finding an unexpected family in difficult circumstances" type story. What sets it apart is the lack of dialogue, animals mostly just acting like animals, and a touch of surrealism and magic in this world. It's refreshing to not have A-List actor #57 make an unfunny joke referencing pop culture while voicing a goofy-ass capybara and instead just having it grunt at a dog in curiosity. Without dialogue the movie let's you take in the sounds of the world and look more closely at the animals to gauge what they're feeling and what they might do. It's a different sort of viewing experience that makes this movie great. But what makes it something I can't stop thinking about? There's a lot of touches in this that connected with me on a really personal level. The whole thing looks like a video game I'd stay up past my bedtime to play. I even felt that same sense of adventure and wonder that I don't really get anymore when booting up a new open world RPG. Flow made me want to be a kid again, and frankly that's something I don't ever wish for. (And for the record, I didn't really like the video game Stray despite the similarities I've seen people point out). Both the art style and the direction of the camera keep the whole thing feeling dynamic like an artsy videogame, but without some of those "gamey" aspects that can bog down the experience with menial tasks. Surrealism goes a long way for me, the presence of it in anything gets my mind racing. It lets me believe that there is magic in the world of the story. And there certainly is tons of it in Flow. Even for the little kitty cat who couldn't possibly comprehend what the hell is going on, it gets to see a little bit of magic and live with it for the rest of its life. It's something I hold dear to me in my own life, to notice all the small, weird stuff because who knows what it could really mean? Last but not least of the personal touches is the fact that this movie not only includes, but prominently features my favourite bird of all time. The SECRETARYBIRD. There's not much more to that, I just love them. And I love this movie, I think I will for a long time.