What a triumph it would be if this film won in all three of its nominated categories. It surely deserves the honor. The popcorn, though. Hmmm.
Dave: I love that this film secretly celebrates the power of ethnography - it rests on a story told through a series of conversations (like an oral history) and present-day interactions. Amin’s story of fleeing Afghanistan is told with a lot of visual flourish: the animation that moves seamlessly from realistic to fantastic and otherworldly, the interspersed news footage, and the transition into real life at the end of the film that makes your breath catch in your throat. But the story - amazing, heart-wrenching, and sadly gorgeous - is at the center of the experience. The animation also keeps the identity of the main character hidden, but it also sometimes makes the story veer into the fictional or “based on a true story” mode. But that’s a minor quibble - this is an incredible film that manages to tell a tough story without completely devastating its audience (️️️️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2)
I’m unsure if the popcorn we ate was quite what the Popcorn Board intended. You’d think after doing this for one hundred-however-many times, we’d have every last popcorn trick figured out but, alas readers, we do not. Popcorn is like French pastry, apparently. It takes time to master. So we soldier on with this delicious, salty-sweet popcorn with an undertone of char. I baked it for 10 minutes less than was recommended and it was still a sticky mess. But it was a pretty tasty mess, even if it might have gotten a little overdone. (️️️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Joe: After being on a couple nonfiction award committees and reading a gross ton of books about refugees, I find myself always returning to the same questions: what are borders? Why does a "nation" matter? Why are so many people tethered to the idea of anchoring their identity to a country? And then I think of the lyrics of Brittany Howard's "13th Century Metal": "I repeat, we are all brothers and sisters." and an overwhelming sadness fills me. Flee touches on these musings. It is not an easy film to watch, but it is compelling in its merging of documentary, memoir, and animated feature. The layers all seem inextricable from each other: sexual identity, national identity, familial identity, political identity - these facets pile onto each other to create a narrative that challenges the current polarized climate. What would happen if we listened to each other, if we cared for each other? This is a film that will linger with me for a long time. (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2)
This popcorn very much seemed like a labor of love. The ingredient combination sounded insane and Dave expressed uncertainty about the flavor profile. Would it be sweet? Savory? The answer turned out to be mostly savory with occasional sweet notes popping in for good measure. For lack of a better word, I'd say this is "sophisticated" - it refuses to fall in a category and offers surprising spice and salt notes in each bite. I'd gladly eat this again. (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Popcorn recipe from: Popcorn Board
Flee on IMDB.
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