MIT Lecture Series Committee

Rated R
90 minutes

view trailer

format: 35mm

Duck Season (2004)

CPW: All shows FREE for prefrosh!

A typical lazy Sunday gives way to an introspective look at what it means to grow up, for two 14-year-old boys left alone for the afternoon, in director Fernando Eimbcke's gentle coming-of-age comedy. With the parents away and the Xbox all to themselves, best friends Flama (Daniel Miranda) and Moko (Diego Cataņo) plant themselves in front of the television and prepare for a fun afternoon of junk food, soda pop, and video games. As the battle to the death rages on the television, Flama's 16-year-old neighbor Rita (Danny Perea) knocks on the door to ask if she can use Flama's oven to bake a cake. When disaster strikes in the form of a deathmatch-killing power outage, Flama and Moko hang up the video-game controllers and call the local pizza parlor in hopes that the delivery man won't make the 30-minute guarantee and they will get a free pie. With a stopwatch in hand and the clock ticking, hapless delivery driver Ulises (Enrique Arreola) arrives precisely 11 seconds late. As the power flickers back on and the stubborn boys insist that their pizza should be free, Ulises contests their claim before agreeing to battle Moko in a video soccer match that will determine once and for all if the boys will pay for their pizza. Their game foiled by yet another unexpected blackout, the bored teens begin contemplating the strange behavior of adults, and the role that a painting of ducks plays in the bitter divorce of Moko's parents. [www.allmovie.com]

In Spanish with English subtitles.

Sometimes a film about nothing can be a film about everything; a film without overwhelmingly dramatic events can delight you more than an outsized epic. The sly and disarming "Duck Season" is such a film.
      -- Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times. Read this review.