Critic Reviews

• Ted Fry, Seattle Times

  Problems are addressed in a narrative progression that gets more horrendous and builds into utter despair, except for the final few words of activism and optimism.

• John Anderson, Variety

  All of Salina's interviews and data tell a graphic story about corporate water piracy, the complicity of governments, the burden put on the poor and the scam of bottled water. But she can't quite jam it all in and still have a film that, well, flows.

• Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

  As if we didn't have enough to worry about.

• Patricia Hluchy, Toronto Star

  Salina's film might have been stronger had it not tried to cover so many water-related issues. But there's no denying its power.

• Jennie Punter, Globe and Mail

  Flow makes the case against the privatization of water, which is happening in gazillions of impoverished communities around the world, not to mention North American backyards.

• Joshua Land, Time Out New York

  Far too much of the film indulges in the sort of shrill alarmism that gives environmentalism a bad name.

• Jennifer Merin, About.com

  The documentary shows in no uncertain terms that if we continue to abuse our water supply, Earth will become uninhabitable and humankind will become extinct.

• Robert Roten, Laramie Movie Scope

  The film makes a convincing case for better oversight of public water systems, water conservation, better water treatment systems and better control of industrial pollution which contaminates water supplies.

• Robert W. Butler, Kansas City Star

  Before ending on a somewhat hopeful note of defiant activism, Irena Salina's globe-hopping documentary is a terrifying downer.

• Frank Ochieng, Movie Eye

  Although meandering at times, Flow is still a serviceable documentary spouting daunting informational facts and figures about the freshwater supply threats and the perilous consequences that inevitably follow.

• Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

  Educational polemical documentary.

• MaryAnn Johanson, Flick Filosopher

  You may never buy bottled water again after this.

• Lawrence Toppman, Charlotte Observer

  Not all documentaries are solution-oriented, but this is.

• Jeff Vice, Deseret News, Salt Lake City

  The film is filled mostly with talking-head interviews and very one-sided reporting. So it's lucky that these are subjects that are extremely topical right now, and are of interest as a result.

• John Beifuss, Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

  The overarching theme here is that the Earth's freshwater supply is being contaminated, sucked dry and 'privatized' for the benefit of huge corporations that are establishing themselves as the heirs to the oil cartels.

• Bill White, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

  Flow might be alarmist propaganda, but with an estimated 20 years left before California's water supply is used up, it might be time to respond to the alarm.

• Nora Lee Mandel, Film-Forward.com

  Channeling Soylent Green, Flow is fresh when it ties issues of supply, cost, quality, and extraction on 5 continents with the rise of giant water companies.

• Jonathan Kiefer, Sacramento News & Review

  Your tap water might be making you sick. But your bottled water might be making you sicker, while also enabling the environmental rape of the American heartland and unconscionable extortion in the Third World.

• Josh Bell, Las Vegas Weekly

  The doomsday tone of the movie quickly becomes wearying, and after a certain point the information is simply repetitive, and thus loses much of its impact.

• Jean Lowerison, San Diego Metropolitan

  It is required watching, because only concerted citizen action can stop the trend.

Read all 20 critic reviews