Flow (2024)

A capybara, a cat and a lemur sail a boat through the end of the world, and Flow never once explains why the world is ending. That’s a feature, but it will bug some people. There’s no dialogue at all. A dark grey cat living in an abandoned cabin full of wooden cat sculptures gets caught in a flood that won’t stop rising and lands on a sailboat with a capybara. A ring-tailed lemur with a basket of trinkets joins, then a yellow Labrador, then a wounded secretarybird. Gints Zilbalodis made it all in Blender, and the animals act like real animals, which is why every near-drowning lands in your stomach. The cat slowly learning to swim and catch fish is the best character arc of the year, and nobody says a word. The final stretch, with its giant stone pillars, goes mystical and leaves questions hanging. Critics gave it 97%. A 9.4 because it’s 85 minutes of pure, wordless wonder. $839.86 says your cat climbs into an empty box tonight and you briefly worry about the water level.

What works: The animals behave like real animals, and the wordless storytelling makes every rescue and every small act of trust hit hard.

What doesn’t: The mystical finale, with the stone pillars and the vanishing gravity, raises questions the film has no interest in answering.

Who it’s for: Anyone who has ever lived with a cat, and families with kids old enough to follow a story without words.