Customer Reviews

Duck Season

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What's better than being 14, not quite interested in girls, able to eat huge quantities of junk food without gaining an ounce and having your mother and father gone for the whole day? Well for one thing having your best friend over and money enough to buy a large Mushroom and Salami Pizza and full access to the television so you can play video games until your head explodes.
Flama (Daniel Miranda) and Moko (Diego Catano) find themselves in this enviable position until the pizza guy Ulises (Enrique Areola) arrives along with a girl, Rita (Danny Perea) looking to borrow Flama's oven to bake a cake..."for just fifteen minutes," she says.
Nothing much happens in "Duck Season" except a pizza is devoured, a pan of brownies is baked, two of the group make out a bit and the house takes a beating. But it's the process here, the journey not the destination.
Wise, funny, real as in thoughtful and insightful, "Duck Season" is another entry in emerging journal of the revolutionary new Mexican cinema.

If you want to see a movie with an original visual style, great acting, hilarious interactions, and is also deeply meaningful... Duck Season is certainly the movie for you. It is an absolute gem and a must see.

To say that this is a movie about nothing is to largely misunderstand the picture. Disguised as the (un)adventures of two 14-year old friends on a Sunday afternoon, this movie is really about beginnings and endings. The 2 boys are on the very cusp of adulthood. Still free of the weight of adult responsibility and accountability. No financial worries. Love has yet to leave them jaded.

Their lives are nicely contrasted against the two supporting players. The 16-year old female neighbor is barely a few years older than the boys, but she's already been let down by the adults in her life. Her family has forgotten her birthday. An experiment with drugs helps to dull the oncoming pains of early adulthood. The 30-something Pizza Delivery Man has lost hope on his future and feels the heavy financial burden in his life. Care for a sickly Aunt is keeping him from truly doing what he wants to do, but he has crafted a meticulous, albeit sad plan to get him out of his situation.

'Duck Season' is a beautifully crafted movie of life's time and place. Meloncholy, yet hopeful...this is one of the year's very best movies.

I was sad to see the DVD had no special features. It does have a few trailers for upcoming dvd releases, and the outstanding trailer for the movie itself. The DVD's B&W picture is very sharp, with only a few grainy scenes intended for the flashback sequences. The Audio is mainly front-channel as the movie itself is dialogue-heavy with little need for your surrounding speakers.

`Duck Season' has some comical moments, but it is quite misleading to categorize it as a comedy. This slow and quiet film, shot in beautiful monochrome, reminds us of early works of Jim Jarmusch, with the curiously attractive characters and minimum use of dialogues.

In `Duck Season' not many things happen. Two 14-year-boys Moko and Flama stay at home while Flama's mother is away from Flama's apartment. Later, Rita, a 16-year-old girl comes to them asking to use the oven, and gets attracted to Moko. In the meanwhile a pizza deliveryman Ulises arrives, but Flama refuses to pay because of the delay. Angry deliveryman refuses to leave, demanding instant payment.

There is nothing extraordinary in the story itself, but as the film goes on, we come to know more about these four characters, and the detailed descriptions of their life which were at first apparently so uneventful, suddenly start to look unexpectedly dramatic with the small but meaningful episodes. The film is always supported by the director's realistic and nuanced touch which is the most attractive part of the story. Potentially serious matters like divorce, loneliness, and death are carefully left outside the room they are in, but the shadows of them are clearly visible in what they see (in flashbacks) or talk casually.

The music is sparse but effectively used, and also tells us something about the director Fernando Eimbcke whose CV includes music videos clips. It makes an interesting contrast because in `Duck Season' the camera does not move in most of the scenes as if taking time to make us breathe the same air as the four characters. This is done at a leisurely pace, and the film requires patience for the viewers, but the end results are something rewarding, something warm-hearted that makes you smile after leaving the theater.

It doesn't tell us much about Mexico where the film is made, and it is not definitely about magic realism (in spite of the name of executive producer Alfonso Cuarón) when you can see the boys doing X-Box Game. I for one found the film a bit too slow, and the frequent use of fade-to-black unnecessary, but `Duck Season' is quirky little film which is amusing and full of pathos.

While far from great, this little b&w Mexican film, mangages to entertain the viewer with a piece about two 14-year olds alone in an apartment, playing video games, firing a rifle, and eating pizza. A Distraught, burdened pizza delivery man ends up hanging out with them along with a teenage girl neighbor who is there to borrow the oven.

Through the dialouge and lingering camera shots, we see beneath the surface of the characters and see a poignant tale of coming-of-age and crisis.

Worth checking out if you enjoy subtle humor and quirky indy cinema.

When I first saw a trailer for "Duck Season", the new Mexican film produced by Alfonso Cuaron ("Y Tu Mama Tambien", "Harry Potter 3"), it seemed like a madcap comedy about two teenagers who spend a Sunday afternoon at home, without power, and are forced to come up with ways to amuse themselves.

It turns out that almost all of my expectations were met. Almost all.

Moko (Diego Catano) and Flama (Daniel Miranda) are two typical Mexico City teens. Moko's mom is off to visit an aunt, so she leaves the two friends alone for the afternoon. As it is Sunday, all they need is a large Coke, some potato chips and their copy of "Halo" for the Xbox and they are all set. A few minutes into the game, the power goes out. No video games, no television, no nothing. Now they have to figure out what to do. Rita (Danny Perea), a neighbor, arrives at the front door, asking to use their oven for her baking. Soon, Moko and Flama order a pizza and when the delivery guy (Enrique Arreola) is 11 seconds late, they refuse to pay. He refuses to leave and the four end up spending the rest of the day together in Moko's apartment.

Written and directed by Fernando Eimbcke, who apparently cut his teeth on music videos and short comedy films for Mexican television, "Duck Season" starts off promisingly, but lacks a key element for success.

The film begins with a series of 'snapshots' of the area in which Moko and Flama live. The area is poor, but these shots aren't about that, they are about establishing the time and place. The shots are really quite beautiful, enhanced by the black and white photography. But they also establish the mood and pacing of the story. Everything we are about to watch takes place on a Sunday afternoon, a very lazy Sunday afternoon. Nothing will happen quickly, so we watch this series of shots slowly fade away until we are in the apartment.

Moko and Flama are two typical 14 year olds. Not a lot on their mind, except for video games, they have a great deal of difficulty coming up with a past time after the power goes out. They sit for a while, they literally twiddle their thumbs for a while, they do this, and they do that. Nothing very exciting. This probably happens over the course of a few moments, but when you are a 14 year old, it seems like an eternity. The film does a great job of portraying how time moves for these two, immersing us in their world, their timeframe. Indeed, the beginning tests our patience. The whole film can't be just about watching these two sit around, can it? Just as Eimbcke has convinced us we will see nothing more, we are ready to begin the journey. We are in the same mind set as the two young men.

Ulises, the pizza delivery guy, provides an interesting counterpoint to the two young men. In his early 30s, he seems like a responsible guy, putting everything into his job. Then you remember his job is delivering pizzas. Later, we learn about a plan he has for the future and it makes him all the more sad. But his character doesn't act sad, for the most part. He seems to enjoy his life, holding out hope for the future.

Rita, the young neighbor, is very different. We don't get a sense of what she is about until very late in the film. She seems odd, initially forcing her way into the apartment to use the oven. When the first cake doesn't turn out, she helps herself to the kitchen and begins baking something else, creating a mess in the process.

All of this is great, and the black and white cinematography is very good as well. Everything is designed to create a definite sense of mood and place, giving us a glimpse into the lazy Sunday afternoon enjoyed by these characters.

What is missing is the sense of madcap adventure promised by the trailer. They have some interesting interactions and do some unusual things, but they happen few and far between. Just because they aren't doing anything, doesn't mean they have to do nothing. The point when we start to learn about these people comes very late in the film; we learn something about each person, making them more fully realized. But because we have to wait so long for this to happen, we need something else to happen in the meantime. It doesn't. All of this activity is crammed into the last half hour, when it would be more interesting to watch it gradually progress throughout.

I was really impressed with the expiditing of my purchase, product came fast but I haven't watched the movie yet so I don't know if it has any problems.But everything looks good, no scratches.

Spanish, subtitles in Spanish or English. I also have Thai options, but I suspect that's because Jan bought it in Thailand. I don't know if you can find it at all. But if you can, get it. It's a keeper and you'll watch it more than once. This low-budget black-and-white Mexican movie puts more in 79 minutes than most Hollywood offerings put into two or three hours. Mucho more, amigo.

It's been a long time since I watched a movie with subtitles and no English audio, and it doesn't matter. Minimal dialogue, simple sentences, much meaning. But mostly, it's about the acting, the visuals, the situations, and a surprising amount of character growth and even thematic development in what the cover rightly calls "a comic gem."

Two fourteen-year-old Mexican boys, Flama and Moko, spend the day alone in an apartment. Their neighbor Rita drops in, and later there's Ulises the pizza delivery guy. And that's it. You'll be amazed at what a master filmmaker can do with this. I am. You can watch it for the humor, or you can watch it for the meaning. I watched for both because my brain is miswired, and I'll watch it again. If you get it, so will you.

Beautifully shot and edited in black and white, 'Duck Season' sets its sites on an oddball teen adventure that has interesting developments and solid craftsmanship. The story is basically about kids who are left home alone on a Sunday morning. Flana (Daniel Miranda) and his best friend Juan-Pablo (or Moko, Diego Cantana) have all day to play video games and do whatever their doting mother doesn't get a chance to see. The acting of all players is so decently believable that we can just imagine them as people who live down the street or in our own neighborhood. A series of mishaps interrupts their favorite X-box games, however. First it's Flana's beautiful sixteen year old neighbor, Rita (Carolina Politi) who introduces herself at the door and invites herself in to use their oven. (Hers is on the fritz.) When the electricity goes out a few times, there are mishaps you could probably guess, but both boys decide it's better to call the pizza man. Betting he'll arrive later than the half hour delivery limit (like the US), pizza man who is so much older, gets to be the line judge. In any case the wager they make with him prolongs his stay and makes him another intimate guest. From there we get loads of conversation: Some of it is revealing, but all of it is interesting. The gamut goes from Flana's home arrangements to thoughts about superstition and the Beatles. We even find out more about pizza man who is significantly named "Ulises" and has an odd fascination for a painting that inspires this movie's title.

While I felt I could add a star for the originality, the filming, the authenticity, and editing, I also thought some of the real life timing was misplaced and lost a few of the jokes in the process. I also found it a little unsettling that Rita chose to include marijuana in the cake batter. While in real life I've heard worse, and it did set up comic situations that are better left to view, a fourteen year old consuming marijuana is a little over the top.

Besides that the movie has some wonderful little twists at romance where the boys tell a different story than what actually occurs. All said, 'Duck Season' is a clever, unpredictable movie that brings a few reservations.

I don't think it would surprise anyone if I admitted that I don't enjoy disliking movies. Click on my profile and you'll see that the few reviews I've posted tend to be outstandingly positive, more than anything else.

However, there are many cases when a film's flaws become too unbearable for me, and I will be unable to shake it for almost as long as I would a positive cinematic experience. To my dismay, "Duck Season" is riddled with bad decisions, and falls into the less glamorous category.

Not once does the film effectively make use of its black-and-white color scheme. The cinematography is empty and would be better suited to desktop wallpaper than anything else. In a cast of four, there are at least two (and arguably three) underdeveloped characters. The title's metaphor is spelled out so blatantly that I honestly felt somewhat insulted as the viewer. Did they really need to strip us the enjoyment of dissecting the title? REALLY?

My disdain for "Duck Season" is bred largely from disappointment. This, as I had come to understand, wasn't one of those "cliche Hollywood movies" (something I tire of hearing, after witnessing almost as much independent garbage), and it's charms and quirkiness were certain to win my heart. So I had heard. And I'll admit that the film is not without it's appeal. However... I'm sorry, I just can't shake the mediocrity this film emits. 2.5 of 5 stars, rounded down for the restless nights I've spent plagued by this lost potential.