Duck Season
The lovely, unpredictable comedy "Duck Season" marks the arrival of a fresh talent in writer-director Fernando Eimbcke. His script is vibrant with unforced humanist observations, the performances are natural and endearing, and the black-and-white imagery bears a distinct visual style that well serves the present-day tale without overpowering it.
The deceptively simple story of two Mexico City teens wasting time while home alone has enjoyed a warm reception on the festival circuit, reaped 11 Ariel Awards (Mexico's highest film honors) and received a 2006 Independent Spirit Awards nomination for best foreign film. Although its gentle charms and lack of incident might be too low-key for some viewers, positive reviews and word-of-mouth should help the film reach an appreciative audience as it expands beyond Friday's bow in Los Angeles and New York.
On a random Sunday in a working-class Mexico City apartment complex, 14-year-old best friends Flama (Daniel Miranda) and Moko (Diego Catano) are hanging out in Flama's apartment, his mother (Carolina Politi) having left, somewhat nervously, for a social engagement. Video games (Bush vs. bin Laden) are the main attraction for the boys, along with a liter of Coke expertly poured into two giant glasses. The first interruption of their slacker bliss arrives with 16-year-old neighbor Rita (Danny Perea), who needs to borrow their oven in order to bake a cake. While she explores the fridge and kitchen cupboards, helping herself to samples, the boys must contend with a second disruption: a power outage that thrusts them into listless silence. Potato chips don't quite fill the void, so they order pizza.
With the electricity still out in the building, the Telepizza guy must race up many flights to meet the company's 30-minute delivery guarantee. According to the boys' ruthless timing, he arrives 11 seconds late. Thus begins a standoff, with the bespectacled Ulises (Enrique Arreola) refusing to leave until he is paid. The boys stick to their guns, not so much out of principle as from a teen need to test their power through offhand cruelty. Among the film's many strengths is the way the young actors act like kids rather than miniature adults.
A video game challenge ends the impasse between Ulises and Flama, while Rita enlists the mop-headed Moko's assistance in her string of pastry disasters. Such is the "action," the ennui interlaced with deadpan silliness, tentative flirtations, ethical debates and soul-searching confessions. Without show-stopping fireworks, Eimbcke detonates revelations full of compassion and loneliness and the ache of living.
The film's title ("Temporada de Patos" in Spanish) refers to a rather generic landscape painting in Flama's living room. For the boy, it's a symbol of his parents' bitter divorce; for the philosophical Ulises, who reassesses his life in the course of the day, it's a window onto new possibilities.
The good-looking film unfolds almost entirely inside the apartment, with the exception of a few scene-setting exterior shots, one brief dip into magic realism and a winsome visual of the foursome on the balcony, which quotes an iconic series of Beatles album covers. In its affectionate look at this quartet of souls, "Duck Season" is a delight.
Duck Season
Warner Independent Pictures
Warner Independent Pictures and Alfonso Cuaron's Esperanto Filmoj present a Cinepantera, Lulu Producciones and Fidecine production with the support of Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografia
Credits:
Writer-director: Fernando Eimbcke
Script written with the collaboration of Paula Markovitch and the advice of Felipe Cazals
Producer: Christian Valdelievre
Executive producer: Jaime B. Ramos
Director of photography: Alexis Zabe
Production designer: Diana Quiroz
Music: Alejandro Rosso, Liquits
Costume designer: Lissi De La Concha
Editor: Mariana Rodriguez
Cast:
Ulises: Enrique Arreola
Flama: Daniel Miranda
Moko: Diego Catano
Rita: Danny Perea
Flama's mother: Carolina Politi
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 87 minutes...
The deceptively simple story of two Mexico City teens wasting time while home alone has enjoyed a warm reception on the festival circuit, reaped 11 Ariel Awards (Mexico's highest film honors) and received a 2006 Independent Spirit Awards nomination for best foreign film. Although its gentle charms and lack of incident might be too low-key for some viewers, positive reviews and word-of-mouth should help the film reach an appreciative audience as it expands beyond Friday's bow in Los Angeles and New York.
On a random Sunday in a working-class Mexico City apartment complex, 14-year-old best friends Flama (Daniel Miranda) and Moko (Diego Catano) are hanging out in Flama's apartment, his mother (Carolina Politi) having left, somewhat nervously, for a social engagement. Video games (Bush vs. bin Laden) are the main attraction for the boys, along with a liter of Coke expertly poured into two giant glasses. The first interruption of their slacker bliss arrives with 16-year-old neighbor Rita (Danny Perea), who needs to borrow their oven in order to bake a cake. While she explores the fridge and kitchen cupboards, helping herself to samples, the boys must contend with a second disruption: a power outage that thrusts them into listless silence. Potato chips don't quite fill the void, so they order pizza.
With the electricity still out in the building, the Telepizza guy must race up many flights to meet the company's 30-minute delivery guarantee. According to the boys' ruthless timing, he arrives 11 seconds late. Thus begins a standoff, with the bespectacled Ulises (Enrique Arreola) refusing to leave until he is paid. The boys stick to their guns, not so much out of principle as from a teen need to test their power through offhand cruelty. Among the film's many strengths is the way the young actors act like kids rather than miniature adults.
A video game challenge ends the impasse between Ulises and Flama, while Rita enlists the mop-headed Moko's assistance in her string of pastry disasters. Such is the "action," the ennui interlaced with deadpan silliness, tentative flirtations, ethical debates and soul-searching confessions. Without show-stopping fireworks, Eimbcke detonates revelations full of compassion and loneliness and the ache of living.
The film's title ("Temporada de Patos" in Spanish) refers to a rather generic landscape painting in Flama's living room. For the boy, it's a symbol of his parents' bitter divorce; for the philosophical Ulises, who reassesses his life in the course of the day, it's a window onto new possibilities.
The good-looking film unfolds almost entirely inside the apartment, with the exception of a few scene-setting exterior shots, one brief dip into magic realism and a winsome visual of the foursome on the balcony, which quotes an iconic series of Beatles album covers. In its affectionate look at this quartet of souls, "Duck Season" is a delight.
Duck Season
Warner Independent Pictures
Warner Independent Pictures and Alfonso Cuaron's Esperanto Filmoj present a Cinepantera, Lulu Producciones and Fidecine production with the support of Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografia
Credits:
Writer-director: Fernando Eimbcke
Script written with the collaboration of Paula Markovitch and the advice of Felipe Cazals
Producer: Christian Valdelievre
Executive producer: Jaime B. Ramos
Director of photography: Alexis Zabe
Production designer: Diana Quiroz
Music: Alejandro Rosso, Liquits
Costume designer: Lissi De La Concha
Editor: Mariana Rodriguez
Cast:
Ulises: Enrique Arreola
Flama: Daniel Miranda
Moko: Diego Catano
Rita: Danny Perea
Flama's mother: Carolina Politi
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 87 minutes...
- 9/3/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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