Max, the proprietary streamer for HBO and Discovery, has a ton of nice movies obtainable to look at on the platform … however proper now, an animated film with none dialogue is one in every of its most-watched motion pictures.
Directed and conceived by Gints Zilbalodis, “Flow,” an animated film that premiered at the Annecy Film Festival final summer season and serves as a warning concerning the risks of local weather change, is an Oscar nominee for Finest Animated Characteristic, and it is also one of the vital fashionable motion pictures on Max in the mean time (per FlixPatrol). Whereas individuals is likely to be looking for out the computer-animated, dreamy, and generally surreal movie due to its Oscar nod, they’re most likely pleasantly stunned by simply how good it’s. So, what’s “Stream” (which Zilbalodis wrote alongside Matīss Kaža) about, and why would not it have any dialogue?
Properly, the straightforward and comparatively flip reply concerning the dialogue factor is that animals cannot speak; clearly, a lot of animated motion pictures ignore this real-life facet, however “Stream” makes the fascinating option to preserve its fully non-human “solid” silent. The primary character we meet is a black cat who encounters a pack of canine preventing over fish in a forest stream, and after the world floods, the cat and a Labrador Retriever handle to flee and finally find yourself on a ship with a capybara. A lemur joins them not lengthy after and whereas all of them attempt to transfer all through a flooded world and rescue some other dwelling beings they see, the animals unexpectedly bond. So, what do critics consider this modern and aesthetically attractive movie, and the way has it already earned its place in film historical past?
What have critics mentioned about Stream?
Critics, unsurprisingly, actually love “Stream.” With a 97% ranking on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing and a important consensus that declares, “Because of its modern animation and mature themes, going with this ‘Stream’ proves irresistible,” there are lots of glowing, “licensed contemporary” evaluations of Gints Zilbalodis’ award-winning movie. “Latvia’s dark-horse entry within the animation Oscar sweeps would not want dialogue (it has none) or A-list voices (additionally absent) to qualify as a factor of magnificence as a cat and 4 fellow creatures carve out a future after a cataclysmic flood wipes out humanity,” Peter Travers raved for ABC News. In the meantime, Ty Burr, reviewing the movie for The Washington Post, referred to as it “dreamy, epic, perilous, and really lovely.”
FilmWeek‘s Amy Nicholson additionally praised the film, writing, “What I felt watching this was the exhaustion and empathy about not having the ability to plan for the world that you just’re dwelling in […] On that floor, I assumed it was lovely.” (Apparently, her colleague Claudia Puig shared that sentiment; as she said in her own review, “Stream” is “wondrous, gorgeously rendered, and immersive to the purpose the place at any time when the poor cat was imperiled I had a knot in my abdomen.”) Kristy Puchko at Mashable was additionally a fan — as she put it, “Refusing to pander to its viewers, ‘Stream’ is an animated journey that’s poignant, distinctive, completely attractive, and a must-see.”
Writing for Rolling Stone, David Worry received to the guts of the matter, explaining precisely why “Flow” is such a special animated film. “The true takeaway is that we’ve got to depend on one another for salvation,” Worry wrote. “And it is right here the place this experiential experiment in empathy, eco-activism and elation over the inventive potentialities of a medium too usually hijacked to promote toys really hits its marks.”
Since its launch, Stream has made cinematic historical past in just a few methods
As I write this, the Academy Awards have not taken place but, so we don’t know if “Stream” will win Finest Animated Characteristic — however even nonetheless, it is already received a handful of necessary accolades and set just a few data for Latvia, the nation that entered it into consideration for the Academy. It is the primary movie from Latvia to win a Golden Globe — it edged out enormous opponents like “The Wild Robotic” and “Inside Out 2” in the course of the January 5, 2025 ceremony — and based on a New York Times profile of Gints Zilbalodis that ran on February 12, it is now one of many highest-grossing movies in Latvian historical past. (“We beat James Cameron!” Zilbalodis crowed to interviewer Carlos Aguilar, referencing the truth that “Stream” has surpassed the “Avatar” motion pictures in field workplace hauls particularly in Latvia.)
“Flow” is also the first Latvian movie to earn an Oscar nomination, and apparently, the nation goes all out to rejoice the animated movie. The Golden Globe that Zilbalodis accepted again in January is now on show on the Latvian Nationwide Museum of Artwork within the nation’s capital metropolis of Riga, and as Aguilar notes, it is “guarded” by two cat statues. “It is only a very nice increase of morale,” Zilbalodis instructed Aguilar of the award being displayed. “Persons are uninterested in dangerous information and perhaps this movie represents one thing that feels optimistic and hopeful in regard to the nation’s vanity.” Not solely that, however based on a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) from Zilbalodis himself, a statue of the cat from “Stream” additionally adorns a statue that spells out “Riga” within the capital now.
“There’s actual urge for food for movies like this, that provides me a whole lot of hope,” Zilbadolis instructed Aguilar earlier than expressing one remaining hope: “Folks all over the world who may not have heard about Latvia will now have heard about it.” Now that “Stream” is offered to stream on Max (and contemplating simply how many individuals are watching it), he could get his want.
Max, the proprietary streamer for HBO and Discovery, has a ton of nice movies obtainable to look at on the platform … however proper now, an animated film with none dialogue is one in every of its most-watched motion pictures.
Directed and conceived by Gints Zilbalodis, “Flow,” an animated film that premiered at the Annecy Film Festival final summer season and serves as a warning concerning the risks of local weather change, is an Oscar nominee for Finest Animated Characteristic, and it is also one of the vital fashionable motion pictures on Max in the mean time (per FlixPatrol). Whereas individuals is likely to be looking for out the computer-animated, dreamy, and generally surreal movie due to its Oscar nod, they’re most likely pleasantly stunned by simply how good it’s. So, what’s “Stream” (which Zilbalodis wrote alongside Matīss Kaža) about, and why would not it have any dialogue?
Properly, the straightforward and comparatively flip reply concerning the dialogue factor is that animals cannot speak; clearly, a lot of animated motion pictures ignore this real-life facet, however “Stream” makes the fascinating option to preserve its fully non-human “solid” silent. The primary character we meet is a black cat who encounters a pack of canine preventing over fish in a forest stream, and after the world floods, the cat and a Labrador Retriever handle to flee and finally find yourself on a ship with a capybara. A lemur joins them not lengthy after and whereas all of them attempt to transfer all through a flooded world and rescue some other dwelling beings they see, the animals unexpectedly bond. So, what do critics consider this modern and aesthetically attractive movie, and the way has it already earned its place in film historical past?
What have critics mentioned about Stream?
Critics, unsurprisingly, actually love “Stream.” With a 97% ranking on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing and a important consensus that declares, “Because of its modern animation and mature themes, going with this ‘Stream’ proves irresistible,” there are lots of glowing, “licensed contemporary” evaluations of Gints Zilbalodis’ award-winning movie. “Latvia’s dark-horse entry within the animation Oscar sweeps would not want dialogue (it has none) or A-list voices (additionally absent) to qualify as a factor of magnificence as a cat and 4 fellow creatures carve out a future after a cataclysmic flood wipes out humanity,” Peter Travers raved for ABC News. In the meantime, Ty Burr, reviewing the movie for The Washington Post, referred to as it “dreamy, epic, perilous, and really lovely.”
FilmWeek‘s Amy Nicholson additionally praised the film, writing, “What I felt watching this was the exhaustion and empathy about not having the ability to plan for the world that you just’re dwelling in […] On that floor, I assumed it was lovely.” (Apparently, her colleague Claudia Puig shared that sentiment; as she said in her own review, “Stream” is “wondrous, gorgeously rendered, and immersive to the purpose the place at any time when the poor cat was imperiled I had a knot in my abdomen.”) Kristy Puchko at Mashable was additionally a fan — as she put it, “Refusing to pander to its viewers, ‘Stream’ is an animated journey that’s poignant, distinctive, completely attractive, and a must-see.”
Writing for Rolling Stone, David Worry received to the guts of the matter, explaining precisely why “Flow” is such a special animated film. “The true takeaway is that we’ve got to depend on one another for salvation,” Worry wrote. “And it is right here the place this experiential experiment in empathy, eco-activism and elation over the inventive potentialities of a medium too usually hijacked to promote toys really hits its marks.”
Since its launch, Stream has made cinematic historical past in just a few methods
As I write this, the Academy Awards have not taken place but, so we don’t know if “Stream” will win Finest Animated Characteristic — however even nonetheless, it is already received a handful of necessary accolades and set just a few data for Latvia, the nation that entered it into consideration for the Academy. It is the primary movie from Latvia to win a Golden Globe — it edged out enormous opponents like “The Wild Robotic” and “Inside Out 2” in the course of the January 5, 2025 ceremony — and based on a New York Times profile of Gints Zilbalodis that ran on February 12, it is now one of many highest-grossing movies in Latvian historical past. (“We beat James Cameron!” Zilbalodis crowed to interviewer Carlos Aguilar, referencing the truth that “Stream” has surpassed the “Avatar” motion pictures in field workplace hauls particularly in Latvia.)
“Flow” is also the first Latvian movie to earn an Oscar nomination, and apparently, the nation goes all out to rejoice the animated movie. The Golden Globe that Zilbalodis accepted again in January is now on show on the Latvian Nationwide Museum of Artwork within the nation’s capital metropolis of Riga, and as Aguilar notes, it is “guarded” by two cat statues. “It is only a very nice increase of morale,” Zilbalodis instructed Aguilar of the award being displayed. “Persons are uninterested in dangerous information and perhaps this movie represents one thing that feels optimistic and hopeful in regard to the nation’s vanity.” Not solely that, however based on a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) from Zilbalodis himself, a statue of the cat from “Stream” additionally adorns a statue that spells out “Riga” within the capital now.
“There’s actual urge for food for movies like this, that provides me a whole lot of hope,” Zilbadolis instructed Aguilar earlier than expressing one remaining hope: “Folks all over the world who may not have heard about Latvia will now have heard about it.” Now that “Stream” is offered to stream on Max (and contemplating simply how many individuals are watching it), he could get his want.
