The Mudge Boy
The Mudge Boy (2003)
Directed by Michael Burke
Writing credits : Michael Burke
Genre: Drama
Film waarin de effecten van verlies en mishandeling duidelijk worden:
Duncan Mudge is een rare jongen. Hij woont op de boerderij met zijn vader, zijn moeder is onlangs overleden. Duncans enige vriend is zijn kip, die hij overal met zich meeneemt, tot hilariteit van de andere dorpsjongens. Duncan mist zijn moeder en trekt weleens haar kleren aan. Er is één jongen die Duncan gaandeweg als een vriend gaat beschouwen: Perry, die regelmatig wordt afgeranseld door zijn vader.
Plot Summary:
Fourteen-year-old misfit farm boy Duncan Midge tries to cope with his mother’s death. To do so, he mimics her behaviors, right down to wearing her fur coat to bed. This causes Duncan’s father further grief, who doesn’t understand his son’s unusual mourning rituals.
The film follows the story of Duncan, a fourteen-year-old misfit farm boy trying to fill the void and alleviate the numbness left by his mother’s passing. Unable to let her go quite yet, Duncan mimics his dead mother. He talks in her voice at the dinner table and wears her fur coat to bed. Edgar, Duncan’s distant sixty-year-old father, doesn’t understand the strange manifestations of his son’s mourning. Why can’t Duncan grieve like a normal person? Edgar becomes intent on laying down some new rules and turning his coddled son into someone who can take on the family farm.
Plot Keywords: Abusive Father / Anal Sex / Chicken / Gay Interest / Gay Teenager
Awards: 1 win & 2 nominations
Cast(Credited cast)
Emile Hirsch … Duncan Mudge
Tom Guiry … Perry Foley
Richard Jenkins … Edgar Mudge
Pablo Schreiber … Brent
Zachary Knighton … Travis
Ryan Donowho … Scotty
Meredith Handerhan … Tonya
Beckie King … April
George Woodard … Merrit
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
John Alexander … Juster
Macklen Makhloghi … Drunken Teen
Joshua J. Masters … Hay Bailer
Additional Details
MPAA: Rated R for strong sexual content including graphic dialogue, a rape, and language.
Runtime: 94 min
Country: USA
Language: English
Color: Color
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital
Certification: USA:R
Filming Locations: Rutland, Vermont, USA
Trivia:
Michael Burke developed the screenplay for the film at a Sundance Labs in 2000. Burke says of inspiration for the film: “Growing up in rural Vermont, I wanted to tell a story about a kid too sensitive for the harsh environment in which he was raised.”
Quotes: Duncan Mudge: [to Perry] Do you ever think about kissing me?
Movie Connections: Remake of Fishbelly White (1998)
User Comments:
Let’s give them something to talk about…, 8 March 2005
8/10
Author: jpschapira from Argentina
“The Mudge Boy” is odd and intense, very well acted, and impossible to dismiss. I think the key is to understand that Duncan is not the one with the problems, but the kind of person who, by being completely and mysteriously on his own wavelength, causes the uncertain people around him to insist loudly and with growing unease on how certain they are of themselves. — Robert Ebert