ThurstonHunger

Peter Pan-ic syndrome captured in a quirky Kieran Culkin independent film.

While the film has an off-the-cuff feel of a bunch of talented Hollywood weirdos making a movie on a dare. Or a long lost weekend. It is sharply shot and looks great. And Aesop Rock hops on board for soundtrack work.

The writing doesn't aim to hit your funny bone straight on, more glancing blows. I found myself thinking a little of old Hal Hartley films, reinforced by Kevin Corrigan's presence perhaps? It also has a little bit of the attitude of "Clerks" - I stumbled across it on a streaming service. It's a little over an hour, watching it won't delay you dealing with your own adult concerns too much.

The Infinity Baby was perhaps born in an Infinity Pool, or was it in a Chinese genetic lab? Either way, the film wraps up quickly to make a point that even a blind man can see, whether or not he's accompanied by his adopted daughter or thinking about his non-evolving brother.

The actors probably enjoyed making this even more than I did watching them. They throw themselves into these roles, the more ludicrous the better.

I dug it as I dug the closing track by a 70's San Jose wond Kathy Heideman, "The Earth Won't Hold Me." That song, like this movie is worth a spin - they both have their own breezy confidence, even if no one is watching/listening to them.

My hunch is there are a lot of Marcel's out there, quietly stuck in their shells (or e-shells) and maybe this movie will encourage them to come out and share their sweet, genteel nature with the rest of the world.

If like myself, you are exhausted by the abundance of loud people demanding an upgrade while on the fast track to outrage, this film could be a temporary antidote.

Jenny Slate nails the pipsqueak lead role with a huge heart, but do not sleep on Isabella Rossellini's remarkable contribution. The film is a pretty seamless blend of stop motion with live action, so much so a behind-the-scenes extra might be worth a watch as well. You could have a pretty contrasting twin bill if you were to watch this with "Mad God."

The bigger contrast to me is the one of a digitial (youtube) community vs a real (albeit surreal) community of the sock drawer closeted types.

I guess for some sweet treacly sentimental tastes like bile, so edge lords may want to steer away from this a "Mad God" awaits you, but definitely a larger number of people could welcome this small film, and ideally feel somewhat welcomed in return.

This movie can travel across borders, as it is free of language. Indeed it is even free of humans, so it quickly rises from animation to allegory.

The recommendation for me to watch this actually traveled over borders as well, from Korea to Hong Kong to me - well all through co-workers. I would extend it to you, if you have any interested in animated movies, Oscar-winning or otherwise.

In a strange way, this reminded me of a stranger film - "How I Lost My Body." There are tricks one can play on screen with animation that just cannot happen otherwise, and both films take you on an otherwise unfilmable quest. Unflimable for a multitude of reasons.

While the allegory could be as simple as the need for cooperation among different beings (even those who are prototypically enemies, I'm talking cats and dogs, not liberals and conservatives). The title of the film stood out, granted there is a tidal wave that rises and falls pushing our furry and feathered plot along,

I was wondering if "Flow" referred to a flow state or flow experience. To quote the person who coined that phrase :

"We have called this state the flow experience, because this is the term many of the people we interviewed had used in their descriptions of how it felt to be in top form: "It was like floating," "I was carried on by the flow."

• Csikszentmihalyi, Flow (1990)

During slower phases of the film, my mind did wonder if the cat was pursuit of a flow state, the activated being. Surrounded by a materialist (the lemur), an existentialist (the capybara), joyful gregarious youth (the labrador) and weary wizened old age (the phoenix? Well I googled it and apparently it is a secretary bird). Admittedly this a bit of a stretch to interpret the film (and never mind my notion that the leviathan/whale is a nearly deceased god) but the movie does seem to offer something a bit more philosophic than fantastic. Never mind some near death experiences, something at the core of all philosophies and much fiction.

Some of the animation here, notably the greenery before and after the deluge was very eye-catching for me. The animals are actually more intensely depicted by their actions than their illustrations imho.

One last comment as a Dad who shared animated treasures with my kids from a young age, I did check and the rating here is an appropriate PG. So if you have young impressionable beings aboard your own life-faring relation-ships, scouting the landscape here first before sharing might be wise.