‘The Duel’ Review: A Boring Bromance Ends With a Bang, as Both Dudes Draw Guns at 20 Paces
variety.comPeter Debruge Chief Film Critic A faux-elegant fable about how not to resolve your differences, made for dudes, by dudes, “The Duel” arrives at a time of intense division (and no small amount of scrutiny over gun use) in America.
Releasing as a one-night-only screening via Iconic Events on July 31 before hitting streaming in August, the movie looks sharp enough, but lands like a rapier with a cork on it, as Dylan Sprouse and Callan McAuliffe play longtime besties who try to settle a dispute the old-timey way … by blowing each other away with pistols. “The Duel” feels like a pretty clever idea at first, to the extent I found myself wondering why nobody had thought of it before, only to wind up asking why its two writer-directors didn’t think of it more.
As it happens, my library contains no fewer than four books called “The Duel,” the shortest of which (by Joseph Conrad) runs a slender 112 pages, but even that has more in the way of subplots and surrounding interest than co-directors Luke Spencer Roberts and Justin Matthews’ debut feature.
While there’s just enough here to sustain a modestly amusing short film, the creative duo (who also penned the romantic comedy “Upgraded,” released earlier this year) really ought to have given the concept a bit more thought.
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