You won't be disappointed!

Don't listen to the negative reviews

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

I'm not quite sure that I can make any definitive remarks about this movie. My feelings are rather ambivalent and I'm not sure exactly what to think. It was entertaining to watch but I don't think I'd ever want to see it again. With each even that happens I was left thinking "What?!?" The movie was strange and often confusing, some things just didn't make any sense. The randomness lead to it being comical at some points. The story of four lives becoming intertwined and involved for a single day is intriguing and keeps the attention of the viewer. The four are brought together by a lack of power, meaning electricity in the building, but perhaps there is a bit of a play on words. Each person, we come to find out, struggles with feelings of impotence and an inability to change their less-than- satisfactory situation.

I am not surprised that the under 18 crowd gives this movie a better rating than adults. Basically this is a story of children surviving the mistakes of their parents. The boys, and Rita, are heroes (niños héroes), survivors of the modern phenomenon of being on their own, essentially restricted to home when not at school. Their imaginations are confined to indoor activities, lazy ones: for the boys, playing video games, and for Rita, imagining adulthood, which includes cooking. It becomes obvious that Rita has never done any cooking. The film begins with a quick panoramic view of where the action will take place. Significantly, the playground swings close to the apartment building will not be part of the movie's set. Then the camera focuses on the particular apartment block of the 3 children. It's name is "Niños Héroes". In 1847 the US invaded Mexico ("from the Halls of Moctezuma…" the Mexican- American War). In Mexico City the last defense was the Military Academy. The US prevailed and the 6 teenage cadets, "los niños héroes" died. At the time Mexico's 'adults', i.e. the government, was a total disaster; Santa Ana was again the President. The title "Temporada de patos" or "Duck Season" also reflects this historic assault by a large adult army on a group, 'flock', of children, 'ducks'. The movie has a lot of laughs, and does not, unlike the history of the "niños héroes" end in tragedy. Kids can be survivors. The pizza delivery guy saves the painting of their flight, their survival.

Admirable though overdone, Mexico's Duck Season does nevertheless enter itself into the indie history books for it's mostly memorable portrayal of 7 hours in the lives of these two young men. Starting off as slow as is possible, the brilliance of this film is only realized when the seemingly mundane, near painful boredom that these young men (along with us viewers) experience being home alone, is brilliantly transformed into something else way more profound. It is that transition itself that I am most impressed by, giving the indulgent direction a crisp reawakening of purpose. Though the (tiny!) supporting cast often takes a bit of the realism away with their forced motives, their lessons learned account for the bulk of this emotional tale, which in turn makes this one of the more effective coming of age pics recent unassuming, independent filmmakers have pursued.

We've all seen movies that just portray Mexico as one of the poorest countries in the world and have its people usually situated like "Speedy Gonzalez"-like carefree people with very short tempers.While it is somewhat true for some regions (or the most part, it all depends), that's not the representation of Mexico as a whole. This movie is closer to what me, my friends, and (some of my) relatives live like: normal people who just like to kick back, play videogames, have a coke, and just have fun with everyday life. They just happen to live in Mexico (and I just happen to live in America in my part because of my grandparents). That's really all it is.Of course, like any art film, the movie goes a little beyond your typical Sunday afternoon. The two main kids, Flama and Mako, are just trying to spend the entire day killing time and they are eventually accompanied by Rita (Flama's next door neighbor who just needed to borrow the kitchen) and Ulises (A pizza delivery guy, with a heart of gold, who stays with the gang because of pay disputes over a pizza Flama and Mako ordered in the beginning).But, unlike your REAL typical Sunday, everything just gets chaotic within that 9 hour time-span. So inevitably, the characters eventually flesh out their true colors, often get into discussions about how animals act, why they are in the mess they are in, and how their fast friendship eventually became something worth more than just borrowing a kitchen to make a cake or pay disputes over a pizza.The name "Duck Season" will become pretty apparent in the middle and towards the end, I thought it was truly symbolic and clever the way they used the theme. Some of the jokes are funny (some even funnier if you listen to the slang they pull at each other), some of the situations can get really deep to a point where you know the character's true desires, and in the end...you just can't help but sit back and wish for more!I'll end this saying the Black and White style fits the film perfectly (especially in a few scenes, which would've been hellish to retake without the B&W filter) but the ending...well, like I said, it left me wanting for a little more. Many of the camera angles are well done, but in my opinion, they should've laid off the fade in/fade out a little bit (I mean, my poor eyes...). And I have to hand it to them...i'm glad they actually depicted videogames in a more REALISTIC fashion; its not just two kids smashing their poor controllers to hell in a ONE player game *cough*charliesangles*cough*, you've got Halo and what I *think* is FIFA (correct me if i'm wrong). I hope more directors will pick up the trend soon if they want to make their films seem a little more realistic when they include videogames.Overall, a good film and a must see!