Bill & Joe Go Duck Hunting
2021 · 22m · United States
Directed by Auden Lincoln-Vogel
Tones: contemplative, melancholic
Two old friends take a trip to a lake to go duck hunting, and their faded friendship is quietly tested over the course of the outing.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
It's a premise that's been done to death—two guys, a lake, regret—but Lincoln-Vogel somehow resists the urge to make it absurdist or arch, which is either admirable restraint or a missed opportunity depending on your mood.
A disciplined chamber piece that understands the weight of silence and mise-en-scène; the film locates itself squarely in the American indie tradition of Koreeda-influenced character study, with the lake itself becoming a kind of formal constraint.
The entire film hinges on a single, almost imperceptible moment—the way one character holds the gun just slightly too long—and that micro-performance choice transforms what could've been mannered into something genuinely unsettling and alive.