Duck Season
David Jeffers
Wednesday March 22, 7:00pm The Varsity
Currently showing in New York, LA, Chicago, San Francisco ...
"We four are like The Beatles."
"They were all men!"
"John Lennon was a woman."
How much mischief can two bored fourteen-year-olds get into on a Sunday afternoon? In Fernando Eimbcke’s Duck Season, Moko spends the day at the apartment his best friend Flama, minus adult supervision. Together they busy themselves with the activities of average middle-class teenagers, playing video games, eating junk food, wreaking a little havoc and causing a little property damage. The cute (and slightly older) neighbor girl Rita comes over to "borrow" the oven. This results in one burnt cake, one that is inedible and hilarious sexual jousting with younger Moko. The boys stiff the pizza delivery guy who refuses to leave without payment but really wants any excuse to escape his dead-end job. Filmed in a cinematic style that makes effective use of wide-angle photography in confined spaces, this is a film that cleverly creates something from nothing. Duck Season is sweet and warmly amusing without a hint of pretense.
Afterthoughts ...
I found myself grinning most of the way home after this one. The audience loved it. If you turned the audio off and only read the subtitles this black and white film could be thirty or forty years old and French instead of Mexican. There was no indication at this screening but hopefully it will pop up somewhere in town for a run.
Posted by David Jeffers at March 22, 2006 9:44 PM
I'm with you, Dave. Delightful film. Like "Stranger Than Paradise," but in Spanish. With kids. Seriously, this guy's a big Jarmusch fan & it shows (lots of silences, fades-to-black, et al). I wasn't the least bit surprised that Ohio's finest got a shout-o ut in the credits (although I was a little surprised that Ozon did, too). Makes sense that it was produced by Alfonso Cuarón; I bet Tenoch and Julio were just like these dos muchachos at 14. Anyway, it opens at the Varsity this Friday. Next to "Dave Chapelle's Block Party," it's the funniest movie I've seen this year. Ã