So you think those “Chronic-what?-cles of Narnia” SNL dudes were rocking a seriously lazy Sunday? Try hanging out with Moko (Catao) and Flama (Miranda), two 14-year-old kids from Mexico City whose ideal seventh day consists of bottomless Cokes, Xbox jockeying and a prime spot on the couch. Then some monkey wrenches get thrown into the works: The electricity keeps cutting out. Their pesky female neighbor (Perea) shows up to borrow their oven and then refuses to leave. The pizza they called for arrives 11 seconds past the half-hour-or-it’s-free deadline, but the deliveryman (Arreola) isn’t giving in without a fight. So the boys patiently wait until they can get back to their obsessive gaming. And wait. And...
Not much happens in Fernando Eimbcke’s deadpan debut; even when the puppy-love make-out sessions, impromptu trauma counseling and some stoned reveries (what exactly was in those brownies?) start offering distractions from the weekend doldrums, the film never really alters its nonchalant pace. What it lacks in momentum, however, it makes up for with a giggly, guileless charm, especially during this underage Stranger than Paradise’s first half of funny blackout vignettes and do-or-die ftbol video-game matches. The movie can’t sustain itself on cuteness forever—you’ll start checking your watch around the hour mark—but its monumental slightness offers such a pleasantly breezy buzz that it’s almost impossible not to be mildly won over. (Opens Fri; see Index for venues.)—David Fear