Quick to Duck
Review by Justin T. Bowler
The great thing about indies is that they are experimental in nature. They aren’t as polished and high budget as blockbusters, simply because they don’t have the money. But, they allow the filmmaker to explore and try new things never done before. Robin Mountjoy attempts just that. Without giving specifics because it would contain spoilers, I can say that cinematically, he borrows from Federico Fellini’s ideas of integrated imagery and uses them to in new ways. At first flashing glance, it seems only to enhance the inner fluctuations of our main character’s mind of madness, but as the story progresses, we find the importance of those specific fast passing images.
On rare occasions, indies surprise and remind us of our favorite actors that we haven’t seen as much of lately. When I was a kid I loved the 1980’s “Dukes of Hazzard” reruns on weekday afternoons. When I reviewed “The Understudy” for The Movie Guys in January, I was delightfully surprised that Tom Wopat (Good ol’ boy, Luke Duke) was one of the supporting actors. It was fantastic to be reminded of his talents and watch him again on screen. Such is the case with “Quick to Duck”. I’ve not seen Steve “The Gute” Guttenberg on my television screen in a while. So, it was GREAT! Instantly, I was reminded of how much I loved his movies as a kid, “Police Academy”, “Three Men and a Baby”, “Short Circuit”. He was awesome! Like with so many of his films, when he comes on screen the movie just lights up. He makes acting look easy. And to him, I bet it is. Every scene he was in just popped.
“Quick to Duck” has a specific vision, that only true students of film will appreciate. Others may find it lacking. Furthermore, I’m not even going to go so far as to say the director’s attempts entirely paid off. But, indie film is the place to try out and explore new takes on old ideas. I give kudos to Robin Mountjoy for that. But, I don’t recommend this movie for everyone, especially if you are a studio release type of person.
Directed by: Robin Mountjoy
Release Date: June 3, 2013
“Quick to Duck” is available to rent from YouTube and Amazon movies.
