“Duck Season” Directed by Fernando Eimbcke
Warner Independent Pictures
Baking, playing video games and arguing over a pizza delivery
are some of the menial tasks that drag out the beginning of
“Duck Season,” which follows four unlikely companions
sharing a strange Sunday in a Mexico City apartment.
At first, it all seems anticlimactic, but “Duck
Season” reveals a surprising level of emotional substance and
social commentary. While the characters initially seem rather
one-dimensional, a string of events results in the realization that
they ““ and the film itself ““ are in fact anything
but.
What is supposed to be a perfect lazy Sunday filled with video
games and junk food slowly morphs into a journey of confessions and
self-discovery as the four strangers ““ two teenaged best
friends, a female neighbor and a 30-something pizza delivery man
““ attempt to amuse themselves and simply make it through the
day.
“Duck Season” is unusual in more than one regard.
Despite being an independent film, it was a huge hit in its native
Mexico in 2004, where it raked in an unprecedented 11 Ariel Awards
““ the Mexican equivalent of the Oscars. Writer and director
Fernando Eimbcke shot his feature-length debut completely in black
and white and divides everything into short sequences similar to
chapters in a novel. After each scene is over, the screen fades to
black for a few moments before music signals the narrative’s
return to the lazy Sunday, slightly after the point at which it
left off.
The film’s primary setting is the apartment of 14-year-old
Flama. He is caught in the middle of his parents’ ugly
divorce, which is symbolized by the painting of a duck currently
hanging in his family room after, he says, his parents had kept it
in storage for 13 years. His best friend Moko is desperate not only
to win an X-Box game against Flama, but also to figure out his
emerging sexuality.
Rita is the first to intrude on the boys’ festivities. She
suffers from a serious case of the Molly Ringwalds, borrowing
Flama’s kitchen to bake the 16th-birthday cake her family
forgot.
Ulises, a stubborn pizza delivery man, is just as lost as his
teenage companions, if not more so. He confides in Flama his strong
distaste for his job and his unrealistic scheme to escape the
working world soon. When the boys refuse to pay him, he stays in
the apartment in protest, and ironically, his subsequent day-long
excursion gets him fired.
The film’s true charm stems from its unassuming and simple
storytelling, allowing the viewer to take the same winding road as
the confused characters. If the film had begun with serious themes,
stretching the conclusion’s close examination of those
few-yet-crucial years between childhood and true adulthood
throughout the entire film, it would not have been half as
effective. The film’s empathetic and emotionally resonating
look at adolescence catches audience members off guard after they
spend the first 15 minutes thinking they were going to learn how to
play “Halo.”
The tagline for “Duck Season” reads,
“Adulthood is a moving target,” and Eimbcke hits the
bull’s-eye of curiosity, anger, optimism and apprehension
that earmarks everyone at some point or another.
The characters’ problems are never solved; the story ends
symbolically with the apartment in total disarray, complete with
broken furniture and a very messy kitchen.
However, a sense of calm and resolution is finally reached
through the characters’ honesty and self-realization. While
some of the movie’s sequences toward the beginning may be
tough to get through, the end result is a pleasant surprise that
will stay with many for a long time afterward.
“”mdash; Kate Stanhope