If you’ve been craving a wonderfully original movie, look no further than “Flow,” the magical animated adventure from Latvia, which I think is suitable for the whole family, except perhaps for the very youngest. You know the rules in your house for who can see what, of course. Although if your 3-year-old is a budding cinephile, then all bets are off.
For the adults and mature teenagers at home, there’s “Performance,” which stars the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger as a dissolute rock star. The controversial motion picture has undergone a 4K digital restoration by The Criterion Collection.
“Flow” has been touring the festival circuit including the Cannes and Toronto film festivals. I saw it at the latter last September. “Flow” has sold the most tickets in Latvia in the entire history of the country’s cinema, 255,000 and counting. Its success around the world has generated intense pride in the nation. The movie recently received the Golden Globe for best animated film, and it has earned Academy Award nominations for both international and animated feature. On March 2, the Oscar winners will be revealed.
The film unreels with a perfectly executed patina of magical realism, which is inserted into the story with a deft touch by writer-director Gints Gilbalodis and his co-screenwriter Matiss Kaza. Gilbalodis is also credited as cinematographer and film editor. If you’re unfamiliar with the phrase “magical realism,” it’s a form of fiction writing or narrative moviemaking in which magical elements are treated as a natural part of the story’s environment. The picture is not merely for people who have a deep affection for animals, especially cats.
If ever a central character could be a good friend, it’s the hero of “Flow,” a gutsy black cat with round, expressive eyes. The feline doesn’t speak a word of dialogue because the movie has no dialogue. Gilbalodis and Kaza avoid the sentimentality and whimsy that you’ll find in most animated films about animals. It’s a completely delightful storytelling effect. The visuals are so expressive, so all-encompassing that no words are necessary. More importantly, perhaps, the lack of words isn’t missed. The ambient sounds are flawlessly constructed. The music is also wonderful. The visuals are dazzling. The caribou running in circles sequence is mesmerizing.
“Flow” is about a cat’s survival during and after a flood of almost biblical proportions. As the flood waters rise and churn, the compelling story takes the cat aboard a passing sailboat that floats from exploit to exploit as other stranded animals get into the boat. They are a Labrador retriever, a capybara, a lemur, and a secretary bird. A whale is also part of the magical blend. The animals become part of a very engaging menagerie. Their adventure is both hair-raising and entertaining. Thunderstorms rock the boat incessantly, but they don’t stop the hoarding lemur from wanting to collect bric-a-brac.
In “Flow,” which starts this weekend on HBO Max and HBO cable, the animals aren’t cartoonish or humanlike. Everything feels authentic. This might be an animated picture, but it’s filled with more emotion and power than in a lot of what gets tossed into the cinematic marketplace. Don’t miss it.
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The Rolling Stones are my favorite band, and I consider frontman Mick Jagger worthy of being called a legendary musician. He’s also an accomplished motion picture actor, and he made a major splash in 1970 during the era of “Swinging London” with the release of “Performance.” Jagger’s most recent acting gig is as an art gallery owner in “The Burnt Orange Heresy,” which I highly recommend seeing.
“Performance” was filmed in 1968, but it went unreleased for two years because of the movie’s drug use and sexual content. A number of Warner Bros. studio executives were apoplectic about the feature and didn’t want to send it out into the world. Some editing of the content was done in cooperation with the film’s co-director and screenwriter, Donald Cammell. The cinematographer is Nicholas Roeg, and he also has a co-directing credit.
In “Performance,” the seedy criminal underbelly of corrupt society and the hedonistic counterculture of late-1960s England collide in what is a mind-bending, hallucinogenic drama. A ruthless gangster named Chas (played by James Fox, in real life a member of a famed acting family) is forced to flee his highly vengeful boss. He eventually finds shelter in the London neighborhood of Notting Hill in the cluttered and colorful home of a reclusive rock star named Turner (acted by Jagger). Turner’s companions, two women, Pherber and Lucy, are respectively played by Anita Pallenberg and Michele Breton.
Living with the trio causes Chas’s sense of illusion and reality, personality and perception, and masculine and feminine instincts to become inexorably altered. Directors Cammell and Roeg created themes that they crafted based on Jagger’s magnetic rock star persona. After it was first shown in theaters, “Performance” was considered scandalous and the general public avoided it. To its fans, the movie was visionary and important. In truth, it has stood the test of time. Jagger is superb in it, and Fox, Pallenberg, and Breton acquit themselves well. The rock and roll soundtrack includes the very good character anthem, “Memo From Turner”
As an interesting aside, Fox was so unnerved by his association with “Performance” that he left acting and entered the ministry for an extended period. He eventually returned to making movies and television.
Criterion has added its usual gilded, and always welcome, extras including interviews, documentaries and essays, as well as English-language subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing. There are two editions: 4K with Blu-ray or only Blu-ray. This is a worthy edition for collectors.