Flow, directed by Latvian filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis, is the kind of first-run booking that is quite rare (too rare!) for us in that it is an animated film. But like last year's Oscar-winning The Boy and the Heron, it's also one of the best films of the year, and it will almost certainly pick up an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature Film. 

Initially nominated at Cannes and then going on to pick up nominations and awards for Best Animated film at the New York Film Critics Circle, Spirit Awards, Golden Globes, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Seattle Film Critics Society, and National Board of Review, Flow is, simply, wonderful. The story is engaging, the characters immediately lovable, and the animation is absolutely beautiful–and not quite like anything else I've seen before. 

It's also a completely wordless film: animals are our central characters (particularly one little black cat) and they behave like real animals, not like the sort-of Disneyfied versions of animals animated films so often contain. At the Orcas Island Film Festival screening I attended, the audience -- both children and adults -- was utterly delighted by the antics of the animals: cats doing very cat-like things and dogs being their most lovable doggy-selves.

The story is unique and has been aptly compared to a fable, as it is set in a world that isn't quite like our own world, a world that seems to be totally devoid of humans after some unknown apocalyptic event. Just traces of humans are left--abandoned buildings, statues, boats, household bits and bobs.  It's a world inhabited only by animals and plant-life and, notably, marked by regular flooding, which the animals must adapt to.  And it's in one of these floods that our story's group of animals find each other and form an unlikely little group of survivors: a cautious cat, a playful Labrador, a sleepy capybara, a curious lemur, and a regal secretary bird. 

It's the kind of film that wasn't "made for children," but children will love it*, and adults will, too: its poignant themes of community and kindness in the midst of hardship offer a particularly pointed and moving story for our times. 

*NOTE: The youngest audiences can see this one though it is rated PG. There are a couple of moments of flooding early in the film that might be a little frightening for the most sensitive, and there is one brief moment of cruelty (animal-to-animal) that might also upset some young viewers. But generally, I'd say, it's an "all-audiences" film.

In a packed awards season, when all the biggest movies are getting their release, I’m pleased to find we had room on our screens for our second new booking, Queer, a film we’ve had a number of requests for from you as our patrons! 

To be sure, I must note that while I’m always excited to watch any new Luca Guadagnino film (Challengers was his other terrific film this year),  I do have some mixed feelings about Queer, mostly because it's based on a William S. Burroughs novel and, despite their undeniable influence, I'm not much of a fan of Burroughs and the Beat Generation cohort. 

But ultimately, I will say this in sincere praise of Queer as a film: 

It is helmed by a stunningly wonderful and vulnerable performance from Daniel Craig (who just picked up a Golden Globe nomination) and terrific performances from the rest of the cast (Jason Schwartzman, Drew Starkey -- who brilliantly plays Craig's magnetic love interest -- and Lesley Manville); it has a marvelous score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross; the production design and costuming are simply fabulous; and the entire thing just drips in the sticky, steamy, heated atmosphere of American expats in 1950's Mexico City.   

If Robert Eggers's Nosferatu made me feel like I needed a warm blanket and fire (more on that film later this month!), Queer made me feel the sweat and grit oozing off the screen. It's fully immersive in that regard in a way that few films ever achieve and that I absolutely loved.

I deeply admire the fact, too, that this adaptation of Queer is something of a passion project for Guadagnino, and he's described it as his "most personal" film. Queer, the novel, was never completed (it was published as an unfinished work), and one of the really fascinating things Guadagnino does here is "finish the novel" -- that is, he imagines the ending Burroughs might have written, an ending which includes a trek into the jungle for Ayahuasca where he meets Lesley Manville (who plays something of a Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now Colonel Kurtz figure, but a much lighter version) and which fascinatingly, includes bits of Burroughs's own biographical details and history. 

I'm not sure everything about the film works (including that ending, which I’m still mulling over), but the passion behind this project for Guadagnino is felt in every frame, and I love it when directors take risks like this.  It is, unquestionably, a film that must be seen as we enter awards season.  

(Note: The last showing of Queer will be on December 24, when it will leave to make room for our Christmas-release films, Nosferatu and A Complete Unknown.) 

We also have two special events this week: 

Third Eye, our staff-curated cult-ish series, returns for Monster Squad, a beloved cult classic, full of loving homages to Universal’s monsters, and selected by PFC volunteer, Dieter.   Dieter writes, "In how many films can you find so many of the classic Universal Monsters? This is what I would call a "gateway film," in that it is marketed to kids, but there are genuinely scary bits to it and can serve as a way to discover more serious horror movies. There was a time when these were more common. The Gate (1987), Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973), Salem's Lot (1979) and Krampus (2015) are great examples. So come on down to the PFC for another excellent gateway film."

Join us for Monster Squad on Saturday at 10 pm! 

And for our Holiday series, we’ve got Nora Ephron’s rom-com classic Sleepless in Seattle starring Meg Ryan (Annie) and Tom Hanks (Sam) and featuring the utterly delightful and unforgettable supporting performances of Rosie O’Donnell (Becky), Rita Wilson (Suzy), Victor Garber, Bill Pullman, Rob Reiner, and the young and wonderful Gaby Hoffman and Ross Malinger. It’s a movie jam-packed with the kinds of memorable, funny, and heart-warming scenes that only the best of rom-coms offer and that were, indeed, recognized with an Oscar nomination for Screenplay. So whether it’s Annie and Becky swooning to An Affair to Remember; Suzy weeping as she recounts the same movie’s final scene to uncomprehending and puzzled men; Sam describing his love for his dead wife to a radio call-in show; or Annie listening to the same call-in show on a solitary drive on Christmas Eve, Sleepless in Seattle offers exactly the kind of cozy warmth we’re celebrating this season.  Join us on Sunday at 1:15 pm or Thursday at 6:00 pm! 

See you at the movies, friends! 

Melissa