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'Duck Season' takes risks that don't pay off
by Eleanor Ringel Gillespie

In the low-key Mexican film "Duck Season," first-time director Fernando Eimbcke embraces inertia as an artistic statement the way Jim Jarmusch once did in his movies. You know, the old nothing's-happening-so-everything's-happening gambit. It was tiresome until Jarmusch grew up a little and started making movies like "Dead Man." It's somewhat less tedious here, because the adolescent protagonists' cluelessness makes the torpor more endurable. Read the full review

TO SUM UP
Best friends Flama and Moko have everything a pair of teens needs to survive a boring Sunday: an apartment without parents, videogames, porn magazines, soft drinks and pizza delivery. However, forces conspire to disrupt their serenity and they must face such issues as divorce, loneliness and the confusion of adolescent emotions.

FILM FACTS ...

Warner Independent Pictures

'Duck Season'

Director: Fernando Eimbcke
Starring: Enrique Arreola, Diego Cataño, Daniel Miranda, Danny Perea
Run time: 90 minutes
Release date: March 10, 2006
Rating: R for language and some drug content.
Language: In Spanish with English subtitles.

On the web
Official movie site
View the trailer
Trailers require Quicktime

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READ THE REVIEW

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: C+
"... the film's understatement at times achieves a kind of formal elegance. And occasionally, the dead air seems daring rather than empty. But neither of those pluses entirely counter-balances the minuses of often dull dialogue and marginally interesting characters."