‘The School Duel’ Review: A Sobering and Satirical Vision of the U.S. Gun Crisis

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According to CNN, there have already been twenty-one school shootings in the United States as of mid-April of this year, a figure that rises annually despite a national culture that has been collectively outraged by such violence for decades now. While American citizens, and the rest of the world for that matter, look on at such growing numbers of school shootings over time, gun control laws persist as one of the United States’ most polemic debates, with contentions between constitutional rights and safety risks continuing to divide the Left and Right.

For his feature debut, The School Duel, writer-director Todd Wiseman Jr. delivers an unapologetically in-your-face condemnation of pro-gun politics and the nationalist sentiments that support them, culminating in a stylish and gutsy film that often startles in just how closely its satirical vision resembles the Trumpian America we are increasingly confronted with.

In many ways, The School Duel’s central character, thirteen-year-old Sammy (Kue Lawrence), is an ordinary American boy: he is bullied at school, raised by a single mother, and loves playing video games. Yet, Sammy is coming of age during extraordinary times, specifically in a near-future “Free State of Florida”, where gun control has been completely outlawed under a radically conservative governor, played by Oscar Nuñez. The movie illustrates this right-wing dystopia in a claustrophobic square ratio, draining (almost) all color to leave only a black-and-white nightmare where housewives carry automatic weapons to walk the dog.

With the abolition of gun laws, school shootings are at an all-time high, and Florida’s overseers have implemented an annual “School Duel,” a nationally televised fight-to-the-death in which high-risk students from across the state are chosen to represent their respective schools, a way of allegedly quelling the shooting incidents and serving as a major propaganda ploy. Inundated by the authoritarian Christianity with which his own school is operated, along with the Alpha Male content that floods his social media, Sammy fantasizes about the glory that winning the School Duel would bring, of becoming its “King” and defeating the losing “Martyrs”.

Sammy’s duel dreams come true when he becomes the unlikely tribute for his school, much to the dismay of his brawnier, more qualified classmates and his caring, if not conservatively brainwashed, mother (Christina Brucato). As the televised battle unfolds over three increasingly violent rounds, broadcast to millions, The School Duel delves into the warped constructions of thought and power that could qualify such not-so-alternative visions of American reality.

Altered Innocence

A world premiere at the 2024 Deauville American Film Festival, The School Duel’s audacious satire has really only become more urgently concerning in the contemporary, particularly as nationalism continues to splinter America more every day. At every thrilling turn, Wiseman’s screenplay overflows with cultural critiques that propel the film, even if its violent finale feels less compelling or original than the story that precedes it. While school shootings in cinema have recently become a culturally hot topic thanks to The Drama, which engages the issue as more of a shallow provocation, The School Duel’s sentiments surrounding gun control could not be more of an assertive statement.

Despite its microbudget, the film stylistically mirrors its bold screenplay, employing innovative techniques to immerse the viewer in Sammy’s frenetic perspective. Shot by cinematographer Kyle Deitz, the movie’s chameleonic visual language sometimes adopts the bodycam viewpoints of the duelers, only to step back from the violent chaos moments later to show the Floridian nature’s closeness to such man-made horrors. The score composed by Trevor Gureckis combines tension-ratcheting synthcore moments with crass, violent rap tracks reflective of the sociopolitical degradation in which Sammy is embedded. The School Duel’s creative craftsmanship effortlessly pulls its own weight, even drawing the focus away from at times-hollow performances by the movie’s actors.

The School Duel deliberately explores the forces that both shape and misguide Sammy’s developing character. Hero-worshipping his recently deceased father, a soldier, Sammy constantly longs for a masculine role model, seeking one in all the wrong places, whether that be on the internet or in a seedy military captain in charge of setting up the battle (Michael Sean Tighe). Moreover, in another reference to The Drama, the film pays close attention to the “aesthetics of violence” that inundate Sammy’s reality, between his consumption of social media and the brutality spread across the news, creating a dramatic discord between the chaotic world he actually witnesses and the sectarian instruction he receives at home and school.

Opening with a quote from A Modest Proposal, The School Duel’s central ideas serve as a modern, eerily timely reinterpretation of the classic text, functioning as a bold satire that warns of the times ahead and what they could have in store for future generations. Wiseman’s debut channels The Hunger Games through the worsening frictions of the American zeitgeist, culminating in a fearlessly ambitious thriller with a singular statement.

3.5/5

U.S.A | 2024 | 90 Minutes | English | Black & White

‘The School Duel’ began its U.S. theatrical and VOD release on Friday, April 24, courtesy of Altered Innocence. Click here to find showtimes near you.