A Birder’s Guide to Everything

Before she died, David's mother gave him a passion for birding. Over a year after her death, the 15-year-old still hasn't accepted the loss and his father is about to remarry. On the weekend of the wedding, David sights what he thinks is a Labrador Duck, a species thought extinct. He and two other misfit members of the Young Birder's Society steal a car, enlist the photographic services of a pretty classmate, and take off for the wilderness. To obtain a picture of this duck would enshrine them in Birder history. In this funny and perceptive film, the road is naturally fraught with perils. As the hijacked car breaks down and the trek into the wild unfolds, the walls inside these young people crumble. David may not return in time for his father's wedding, for which he is best man, and the hunt for the legendary bird is turning into a search for something deeper. Like our feathered friends, the truth in life is encountered briefly before it flies away. —C.R.