Culture Crash: The Love Story of “Little Fish”

Welcome to Culture Crash, where we examine American culture – what’s new and old in entertainment.

Little Fish, a movie that was recently added to Hulu’s streaming offerings, is so current and relevant that it is honestly pretty chilling it was made before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Little Fish is a love story set in a world where a different kind of pandemic is sweeping the globe. In the movie’s universe, a virus is spreading that erases people’s memories, and the film plays its premise entirely straight – there is no cheats or really even any comedic relief. It’s an emotional, introspective film, but it is quite lovely, and it portrays many of the emotional highs and lows that so many of us have experienced since March 2020. It shows how lonely a pandemic world can be, and just how willing desperate people are to try desperate measures.

The film is driven by excellent performances from Olivia Cooke and Jack O’Connell, both of whom are really interesting performers I expect we’ll be seeing a lot of over the next few decades. Little Fish is certainly a heavy watch, and my wife and I had to turn some comedic relief on immediately afterward, but it is also a beautiful look at a couple hoping to cling to their memories of each other and a stirring piece of filmmaking that boasts some great cinematography and writing.

It’s a movie that will certainly feel familiar to all of us who lived through the COVID-19 pandemic, but isn’t literally tied to that reality, like the film Songbird or some other COVID-era TV and movie options. Little Fish is differentiated enough that it should be able to stand the test of time, and pull at heartstrings for years to come.

Little Fish is now streaming on Hulu.

I’m Evan Rook.