When I was a small child, my mom had to stop me from jumping out of a window. Not for any dark or reckless reasons, but because I had watched Kiki’s Delivery Service so much, I was convinced that I could fly. The way it was portrayed onscreen — the weightlessness, the sense of possibility, the assurance that I would land safely even if I didn’t know that that wasn’t realistically or logically possible — had all burrowed into my brain.
Decades later, now with a bit more wisdom and a pathological fear of falling, I was reminded of that burrowed feeling while watching Arco. The recently-Academy Award-nominated film from French director Ugo Bienvenu puts its own spin on the cinematic magic of flying, all while telling a fable that will simultaneously make your heart break and soar.
