Flee and Luca: Reviews
Both of these are up for best animated. One of them is also up for best documentary. It is NOT the one about the sea monster.
Luca
Well, I watched this back in August. My notes were “this was far cuter than I thought it would be. Kinda like The Little Mermaid but with dudes and a tad more “love people for who they are even when they are different, maybe even especially when they are different.”
As I recall, it was good but not one of my absolute faves. I mainly remember Giulia’s father, the taciturn cook with the mad knife skills.
This movie is for
people who like animated movies
people who like sea monsters
people who would like to have Maya Rudolph in every movie (yes, please)
people who like scooters and spaghetti?
This movie isn’t for
uh…people who don’t like those things?
Flee
As they would say on Monty Python, and now for something completely different.
This is an animated movie about an Afghan refugee who’s hidden his past thoroughly, including from the man he wants to marry. All kinds of trauma associated with losing his father, escaping Afghanistan, being bullied in Russia, and finally making it to Denmark.
No doubt this is an important film. Animation does, for the most part, add to the story, doing things that can’t be done with live footage because so much of the story is told is from Amin’s memory. My only complaint would be that the beginning is a bit disjointed, but it quickly settles into a story you must know the ending to. While Flee does have a happy ending—and I will spoil the heck out of that—it is hard to watch because, well, people aren’t always at their best. Fine, they’re often at their worst in this film. It also reminded me of A Thousand Splendid Suns, and I may have to devote a month of therapy just to reading that book so there’s that.
This movie is for people who
would love to see a documentary told through animation
have compassion for refugees
This movie isn’t for people who
aren’t in the head space for a story about refugees
have little patience for jumping around in a story
#MondayMovies disclaimer: This blog is just for my thoughts. Sure, I’m a writer and an English major so I have some idea—we would hope—of how stories work. I’m also a flawed human being with my owns likes and dislikes, though, so please watch any movie you like and love it or hate it or just go for the popcorn. (Also, there will likely be a post a day leading up to the Oscars because I have quite a few films left)