Duck Butter
24時間ずっとLOVE
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Two women decide to spend 24 hours together and have sex every hour, to skip the dishonest part of dating.
Naima, a young actor in Los Angeles, has just started work on her first major film, for the directors Mark and Jay Duplass, who suggest she is holding back. At a lesbian bar she meets Sergio, a free-spirited singer and artist who wins over a heckling crowd with a shaky performance, and they go home together. Sergio has an idea: spend twenty-four hours with someone, having sex once an hour, and fast-forward through the months of getting to know each other, skipping the part where people pretend. Naima says no. Her best friend, Ellen, asks why they cannot just go for coffee.
The next day Naima is fired from the film. That evening she turns up at Sergio's house and asks to try it. Sergio, wary, makes her promise not to leave. Through the night they make art, have sex and talk about their lives, their past lovers of both sexes and their mothers; in a burst of sleepless euphoria Naima sends a crude email to the directors who fired her. Sergio is frank and unguarded in everything, and Naima, anxious and self-conscious, is thrilled by her one moment and exasperated the next.
In the morning they have breakfast at Naima's house, which her father bought for her, with Sergio's mother, Susana, who has come to hear Sergio sing at a music showcase. Susana belittles her daughter's art, and when she comes back for something she forgot, Naima kisses Sergio in front of her. The day turns sour. Feeling suffocated, Naima suggests group sex with Sergio's friends Kathy and Glow, half hoping it will drive Sergio away, then is overwhelmed as it begins, and the couple leave. Naima shuts herself in the bathroom. Sergio retaliates by defecating in a pan, as she used to do to spite her mother as a child, and in the row that follows she accuses Naima of never having been honest with her. Sergio walks out. At the showcase she sings an unaccompanied cover of Elvis Presley's "Suppose". Naima, who spent the night afraid of Sergio's dog, rescues a stray dog from the street.
Starring
Alia Shawkatas Naima
An anxious, self-conscious young actor in Los Angeles who, newly fired from a film, agrees to Sergio's twenty-four-hour experiment.
Naima’s story
The directors of Naima's first big film tell her she is holding back. She goes home with Sergio from a bar but turns down Sergio's plan of twenty-four hours together, sex every hour and nothing hidden; the next day she is fired, and that evening she is at Sergio's door, promising not to leave. Through the night Sergio thrills and exasperates her by turns, and in a sleepless rush she sends the directors a crude email. After breakfast she kisses Sergio in front of her belittling mother. Suffocating, she proposes group sex, half hoping it will drive Sergio away, then cannot go through with it and hides in the bathroom. Sergio accuses her of never having been honest, and they part. Naima, afraid of Sergio's dog all night, rescues a stray from the street.
Laia Costaas Sergio
A free-spirited singer and artist who proposes skipping the slow part of love, and who needs to be taken whole.
Sergio’s story
Sergio sings shakily and wins over the bar anyway, and she lives the same way, frank and unguarded. She proposes that she and Naima skip months of pretending by spending twenty-four hours together, with sex every hour, and when Naima comes back to try it, Sergio, wary, makes her promise not to leave. Through the night they make art, have sex and talk about past lovers and their mothers; at breakfast her own mother, Susana, belittles her art. She agrees, unhappily, to group sex with her friends Kathy and Glow, and when it falls apart and Naima hides away, she defecates in a pan, as she once did to spite her mother, and accuses Naima of never having been honest. She leaves. At the showcase she sings an Elvis Presley cover unaccompanied, recalling their argument about covers.
Mae Whitmanas Ellen
Naima's best friend, who thinks the experiment is madness and that the two should simply go for coffee.
Hong Chauas Glow
One of a couple Sergio is friends with, invited round when Naima proposes group sex.
Kate Berlantas Kathy
Glow's partner and Sergio's friend, who leaves with Glow when the evening falls apart.
Why it matters
Duck Butter is an experiment in speeding up intimacy. If dating is a slow performance of one's best self, what happens when two strangers skip straight to everything, bodies first? The film's answer is that sex can be fast-forwarded and honesty cannot. Alia Shawkat co-wrote it and stars in it, and the queer site Autostraddle praised sex scenes that feel real and are not shot for a male gaze, while many critics found the story too thin to carry a feature. What makes it worth watching is how precisely it maps two kinds of fear: Naima's anxious self-watching and Sergio's need to be accepted whole, and at once. It leaves open whether intimacy is something that can be engineered, or only grown, and what two people actually know about each other after a night of telling everything.