International Film Festival Rotterdam
VERDICT: In this 16-minute short, visual artist Rachel Maclean co-opts the inherent suspicions of cinematic espionage to craft this surreal mash-up about the escalating media paranoia.
To say that Rachel Maclean is the only cast member of DUCK is both entirely accurate and utterly misleading.
Acting as the stand-in for a deep-fake phantasmagoria, Maclean might play every role, but she is wearing the digitally rendered skins of Marilyn Monroe, John F. Kennedy, Sean Connery, Roger Moore and several other erstwhile James Bonds. It’s an all-star caper that doesn’t actually feature any stars. It is a mind-bending spy thriller that plays as more of an absurdist nightmare while remaining hugely enjoyable and, at times, laugh-out-loud funny. In balancing all of these elements, Maclean has made one of the most entertaining and satisfying films yet about alternative facts, while never robbing the topic of its underlying queasiness.
Maclean has a highly attuned knack for combining penetrating reflections on art, storytelling and consumption with a sometimes-dizzying maximalist aesthetic. While DUCK adopts a very different visual identity to the familiar look and feel that defined prior works like Spite Your Face (2017) and Make Me Up (2018), it retains the same irreverent aspect that makes its pointed commentary all the more piercing. Here, the film is saturated in a greenish hue that can’t help but recall The Matrix (1999) and the myriad video games it inspired, no accident for a film that revels in questioning the authenticity of the world around its protagonist. Its primary source material, though, is the world of spies and schemes and Maclean relishes the deployment of recognisable music cues and suitably creaky one-liners.
The narrative – which would be done a great disservice by recounting in great detail – sees a Sean Connery James Bond murdering Marilyn Monroe before becoming embroiled in a plot filled with twists and turns, alien invaders and avian machinations. Through this bizarre and rapidly unravelling story, Maclean nods to various facets of ongoing conversations about the rise of fake news, dexterously both lampooning and illuminating in equal measure. Most importantly, she’s spun an outrageous yarn about a team of James Bonds and a sinister anatine cabal.
Director, screenplay, cast: Rachel Maclean
Producer: Beth Allan
Cinematography: Jamie Quantrill
Editing: Ciaran Lyons
Sound: William Aikman
Music: Julian Corrie
Production company: Forest of Black (UK)
Venue: International Film Festival Rotterdam (Focus)
In English
16 minutes