Mouse
Director: Kenny Riches
United States, 2024, 105 min
Shooting Format:Digital - Arri Alexa, Amira
Festival Year:2025
Category:Narrative Feature
Cast:Kenny Oiwa Riches, Sarah Coffey, Kimball Farley, Hiroko Oiwa Riches
Crew:Writer: Kenny Oiwa Riches. Producers: Jack Hessler, Dave Moppert, Jesse Brown.
Email:kennyriches@gmail.com
Synopsis
Between stealing bicycles and breaking into cars, Denny’s only social outlet is spending time with his mother who loves reading correspondence from their Japanese family overseas. Denny’s loneliness pushes him to sign up for a penpal service from a classified-ad. He begins writing letters to a woman named Tess, whom he develops feelings for, but lies to about his nonexistent wealth and success. Unbeknownst to Denny, the penpal service is a scheme Tess and her real-life boyfriend, Maury, run to take advantage of the lonely. Tess and Maury find themselves in financial trouble of their own and decide to travel to Denny to take him for all he’s worth. Upon arrival they find that things aren’t what they seemed in Denny’s letters.
Trailer
About the director
Kenny Riches was born in Toyota City, Japan; raised in Salt Lake City, Utah; and currently resides in Miami, Florida. He holds a BFA in Painting and Drawing. His first feature film, Must Come Down premiered at Cinequest Film Festival in 2012. His 2015 feature film, The Strongest Man, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was released by AMC International and Kino Lorber. His follow up film A Name Without A Place premiered at the Miami International Film Festival in 2019. Mouse marks his fourth feature film. He has received generous support from the Sundance Institute, Sun Valley Film Labs, US in Progress, the Knight Foundation, and PBS. His producer credits include My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To (2020, Tribeca Film Festival) and Sanzaru (2020, Slamdance Film Festival). He is a co-founder of The Davey Foundation, a grant-giving organization for filmmakers founded in memory of David Fetzer. He is also a partner in the production company, Dualist.
Filmmaker's note
The make-up of America’s diverse population comes with a lot of bias. Throw class dynamics into the mix and it gets even muddier. I wanted to make a film about a new American; a first generation American, like myself that inherited aspects from two different cultures, one of which is Asian, aka the “model minority.”
I see the quiet Japanese home-life with Denny’s mother in direct contrast with his disgruntled low-class American work-life. America’s hustle culture is coated in rags to riches, bootstrapping ideology, and while many Americans often find their way to a better financial position, the truth is legacy and financial education of the middle to upper class plays a much more significant role in generational wealth than Americans like to admit.
In the pursuit of success, morals that seemed so sturdy can wiggle, and slippery mental gymnastics can excuse questionable behavior, and supportive community can fall to the wayside as greed encourages individualism. What’s left is a dog-eat- dog mentality that is woven deeply into the fabric of America. These were the ideas on my mind as I was writing Mouse.
It’s a strangely personal film, with admittedly Denny’s hustles being inspired by my own youth and of course casting my real-life mother to play Denny’s mom. Their loneliness in the land of the American dream is palpable and even Tess and Maury’s world feels quite claustrophobic. It’s easy to find oneself feeling alone even in a sea of 300 million people.