It doesn’t help that she spent quite a bit of screen time downing the movie. And the decision to not hire little people to play the dwarves because of one guy who already got his chunk caused some really bad CGI.
Part three. Shall we start taking bets on how many parts Chat Music will release for this one?
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In 2022, Everything Everywhere All at Once became an Academy Award-winning film with an extremely small post-production visual effects team of just five people.
For the films of 2024, Latvian film Straume won Best Animated Feature by both the Academy and the Golden Globe and started with a small group of people that made the entire movie before expanding to include two studios, created using the free and open-source 3D graphics program Blender. The movie just exited theaters but will receive its home video release through The Criteron Collection this year. It’s called Flow in the U.S.
I just saw it on HBO today. I’d like to do a review of it, but it’s a hard one to review because of the simplicity of the story that would necessitate spoiling a lot of it to actually provide a review. So instead, here’s an overview of the story:
Some time after humans disappeared, a sudden flash flood turns into a global flood and animals that might normally fight learn to work together to survive.
That’s it. Most of its 84 minute runtime is devoted to it. Now that’s out of the way, I can review the technical aspects of the film.
There’s no dialogue. This is pure visual and audial storytelling. The animals do make their normal sounds, except for the capybara, which had a baby camel’s vocalizations because what capybaras make are high-pitched and unpleasant. While watching it, there was one point where the cat would have been disgustedly saying something like “morons” if there was dialogue.
Whereas many CGI films aim for photorealism, this doesn’t. The shading has distinct gradations, like someone took a topological map and filled in each elevation level with a different solid shade. Instead, it uses movement, mannerisms and sound to achieve its realism.
It’s rated PG and everyone can watch it. There’s elements of danger and watching the flood rise at a slow yet quick and relentless pace creates urgency for all animals, but the cat especially. There’s also one fight scene, but it’s more like ritual or ceremony than anything that might be seen as brutal.
See this when you can. There is also a board game based on the film.
There I am, browsing YouTube and see Walton Goggins has a new movie. Watch trailer and I realize, “Wait, I know this one. I know what it’s about.” In three weeks, you also can know what it’s about if you haven’t already read Wikipedia’s article if you go to the theaters to see The Luckiest Man in America.
Part 4.
Interestingly, I’ve read a couple reviews that say she was the best part of a very unneeded movie with no real direction or purpose.
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Went to the Annapolis Film Festival to see Been Here Stay Here which my wife wanted to see. It’s a documentary in the ‘slice of life’ style about Tangier Island, Virginia which is an old isolated island in the Chesapeake Bay. It’s disappearing due to rising sea levels and erosion.
Interesting movie. Doesn’t blame anyone for the problems the island faces but just shows them. Like a lot of small towns there’s also the usual trend that young adults leave and done want to come back, at least permanently.