Dual (2022 film)

Dual is a 2022 satirical^[2] science fiction comedy film written, produced and directed by Riley Stearns. It tells the story of a woman who tries to destroy a clone of herself. The film stars Karen Gillan and Aaron Paul.^[3][4]

It premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2022.^[5][6]

Premise[]

In the near future, a woman named Sara hears that she is terminally ill. To save her family from the pain of losing her, she opts for a cloning procedure of herself and trains the clone to feel like her. But then Sara makes a miraculous recovery, which drives her to a new problem: in the society of the future, humans cannot exist for longer than the time limit of their clones. By law, Sara and her clone must eventually fight each other to the death.

Cast[]

• Karen Gillan as Sarah/Sarah Double
• Aaron Paul as Trent
• Theo James as Robert Michaels
• Beulah Koale as Peter
• Maija Paunio as Sarah’s Mother
• Sanna-June Hyde as Doctor
• Andrei Alén as Facility Tech
• Kris Gummerus as Tom

Production[]

The film was announced in April 2020, with Karen Gillan,^[7] Aaron Paul,^[7][8] Beulah Koale^[7][4] and Jesse Eisenberg cast.^[2] Principal photography began in October 2020.^[9] The film was shot entirely in Tampere, Finland,^{[7][4][1][better source needed][10][11][12][13][excessive citations]} and is also co-financed by IPR.VC, the Finnish venture capital company.^[14] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in America, the film crew tried to find a suitable location in Canada and New Zealand, but to no avail, so Finland was chosen as the shooting location for the film.^[15] The filming took six weeks,^[4] and during that time, Karen Gillan embarked on a heavy fitness workout for her role guided by local coaches.^[16][17]

With the successful filming, the City of Tampere and Film Tampere signed an agreement with XYZ Films for other future productions of the company.^[18][19] The idea of organizing an international short film competition called Generation XYZ for the 2021 Tampere Film Festival arose from the same collaboration.^[20]

Release[]

The film premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2022. RLJE Films acquired the film's US distribution rights afterwards.^[21]

Reception[]

The film received positive reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 83% of 41 reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.20/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Dual brings writer-director Riley Stearns' signature deadpan style to bear on a smart sci-fi comedy that's well-led by Karen Gillan in double roles."^[22] Peter Debruge from Variety says that "Dual is in fact a fairly astute comedy. The laughs come not from jokes so much as sharp jabs of truth — wince-inducing insights into the subjects most movies won’t touch, like our fear of death, intimacy and being forgotten."^[23] In an IndieWire review, David Ehrlich rates the film B +, saying: "Dual isn’t too big on world-building (lo-fi technology does much of the heavy lifting here, with slide projectors and squelching dial tones co-existing alongside damningly realistic internet porn), but it sure is huge on training sequences. – – – Dual reliably gets close to unlocking that layer during its most juvenile moments, as Stearns finds a kind of Beavis and Butt-Head-level poetry in the sort of things that are too immature for other films like this touch."^[24] In a film review by John DeFore, published by The Hollywood Reporter, DeFore says that "the problematic-clone theme is familiar enough that it alone won’t keep many viewers engaged for 90 minutes, though Stearns does find an intriguing third-act complication or two. Gillan, who has spent much of her post-Doctor Who decade playing cyborgs, computer avatars and a thinly imagined assassin, has a barely more human role to play here; to the extent that she makes either Sarah worth rooting for, it’s an achievement."^[25]

References[]

External links[]

• Dual at IMDb
• Dual at AllMovie
• Dual at Rotten Tomatoes