The Kids Aren't All Right
Hillary Spera/2018 Tribeca Film Festival
MOVIE REVIEW
Duck Butter (2018)
In some ways, “Duck Butter” feels like the lesbian take on “Chuck & Buck.” The fact that Miguel Arteta directed both notwithstanding, each seems to revolve around the warped sense of love and romance and the arrested emotional development shared by some members of the LGBTQ community – perhaps for being sheltered through puberty.
While “Chuck & Buck” played out like a super awk sequel to “Call Me by Your Name,” “Duck Butter” centers on a super awk blossoming relationship. Naima (Alia Shawkat, who cowrote the script with Mr. Arteta), a marginally talented actress cast in some hot indie flick with some hotshot director attached, falls in love with Sergio (Laia Costa), a bratty singer of similarly limited talent with a CD release party on the horizon. They fall head over heels and resolve to have sex every hour on the hour. Before they ultimately drive each other crazy, they drive the audience nuts.
The idea of the film itself isn’t that unappealing, but Naima and Sergio both being vapid, self-centered twits with delusional career and romantic pursuits and no material concerns quickly grates on the nerves. Perhaps they deserve each other, but you long for reality to knock some sense into these people and unfortunately the film never gives us that satisfaction.
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