Even though Flow is nominated for two Oscars, in the International Feature and Animated Film categories, it’s not nearly famous enough for Benny Safdie’s liking. Since seeing the Latvian-made movie about animals working together to survive a natural disaster, the director-actor staunchly believes that everyone — really, everyone — needs to experience it for themselves.
Safdie’s love for Flow isn’t born of any specific technical feats or innovations from director Gints Zilbalodis; he just thinks it’s one of the best movies he’s ever seen thanks to its straightforward story and gorgeous visuals. But as he shared when presenting Zilbalodis with his New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Animated Film, the real joy of seeing Flow was getting to do it with his sons, 9-year-old Cosmo and 5-year-old Murray, who loved it just as much as their dad did.
In a recent chat with Vulture contributor Dan Reilly, Safdie explains what makes Flow so special, why he wanted his kids to experience it on their own terms, how he’s trying to keep the boys from seeing too-mature films like he did, and the father-sons bonding moments that great works of art bring about.
When I saw the trailer for Flow, I went, My god, this looks incredible. My next thought was, How do I get my kids to want to see this?
Even though it’s directly targeted to kids, I didn’t want there to be any notion of it being a movie I wanted to see, or that was artistic. There’s always an inherent bias that a kid will have. I know I had it with my dad. Oh, great. This is one of his movies. This is what he wants. I’m being dragged to see some boring thing. I didn’t want that to be the case. I wanted Flow to be something that they wanted to see.
I brought them around to show them the trailer and they were riveted, like, “When does this come out!?” We saw it last November. They’d never been to the Angelika, so they’re downstairs, the subway’s going by, and the screen is small and far away — it was incredible. They went and experienced it as they would Paddington. When you’re watching something with your kids that’s meaningful to you and then you realize that you both had the same feelings? That’s the greatest.
My wife and I will talk about which movies to show the boys. Sometimes, it’s: “I like going in the ocean. I don’t want him to be afraid of that. Let’s skip Jaws.” There are things that I try to remember, to temper myself a little bit; I saw Kramer vs. Kramer when I was 7 or 8 — maybe older, but definitely way too young. Another one I saw too early was The Shining. That scared the hell out of me. And they have got to be a lot older to see my movies. They’ll ask why and I’ll say, “They’re dealing with things that you don’t need to think about right now.”
There’s an inherent nature as a parent, that you want to watch the things that were important to you as a kid, and you hope that your kids have the same feelings that you had. When that doesn’t work out, it’s sad. You think, Eh, maybe in another year. You have to pick and choose: What it is that you want them to see and feel? If it’s too safe then it’s not as much fun. You need to have a bit of those sharp edges in there. I don’t really have an agenda with their tastes but I do think that there is an importance to seeing things that think a little bit differently.
With Flow, I didn’t want to force those deeper themes. The climate change aspect is there but for a kid, I don’t know how much they understand it. When they get older, hopefully they’ve had their science classes and learned about that stuff. But then again, I forget the news has all this insane stuff on it and it’s on TV at 7:30. You’re like, Oh my god, I’m nervous about showing them a movie?
I’m confident the message of overcoming differences comes through, though, just by how the boys felt after. The thing I’ve realized is you’re not going to get that information from them when you’re talking about it. Mainly, you’re going to kind of ask yourself, Did they have a good time? But you can sense that there was something more than just entertainment there. The way they were walking around, how they carried themselves — they’re seeing things a little bit differently now. There wasn’t a feeling of sadness at all when we left the theater. The one question I asked was, “So what do you think happened at the end?” because I don’t even understand what happens when the bird lifts up. For them, it was just a matter of fact: “He didn’t float up, he stayed.” And I was like, “You know what? That’s it. You’re right. He did stay.” You only feel that way if you understand that everybody’s working together, irrespective of who they are. That’s built in so deeply that the movie wouldn’t be successful if it didn’t have that. You care about the cat, you care about the animals, you want them to succeed, and you want to see how they’re going to do it. You really care.
What was really special about Flow was the fact that my sons took it in without any artifice. They were into it the whole time and I was just excited that something like this was possible. It’s telling a story and doing it really well with great characters. And it’s also just fantastic-looking, in the truest sense of the word — really beautiful and unique. I haven’t stopped thinking about it and it stuck with them, too. It’s a meaningful thing to experience that with your kids, discussing the adventures they saw on the screen in ways that better your own life off of it. That’s the takeaway: it was an amazing adventure, we could talk about it, we had a good time, and everyone should see this movie.
