Why is The Sundance Film Festival movie 'Dual' by Riley Stearns a must watch?
by Jaskiran Kaur | Thu, 10 Mar 2022 19:21:38 GMT
Karen Gillan fights her clone to death in Dual; Credits: Hollywood Reporter

If you watched The Cub by Riley Stearns, you know how magnificent the work of the American filmmaker is. The Cub by Stearns was first premiered during the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, and the filmmaker has maintained a good streak in the fest since then. He is also known for his two other feature films, Faults and The Art of Self-Defense, both of which are dark humor films. 

Now, Stearns is making a comeback with another film, Dual. Also true to his authentic deadpan style, Dual is a film that features a sci-fi plot to tell the story of a woman who has to fight her commissioned clone to death after it has outlived its function. 

Starring Karen Gillan in the lead role, the film will also premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and is an intriguing watch. Here is what Stearns had to tell about the film and had a conversation with DiscussingFilm. 

Explaining how he came with the concept of the film and then brought it to life, he shared that the film was shot in Finland. When they first started out to shoot a Hollywood sci-fi film, all the locations they were shown consisted of fancy mansions and ultra-modernistic spaces that could convey the concept of "future."

Yet, that was not how Stearns envisioned his film. People usually think of sci-fi films as a leaf into the future world with added elements like world-building and modern world expectations. But Stearns being himself is not very keen on appeasing people and is commonly inclined towards flouting expectations. 

Hence, he decided to do what intrigued him instead. He thought on questions like how someone's family would react if they decided to clone themselves and more as he brought a fresh take to the plotline. 

The film comes with a "stilted satire" which is not always an easy concept to bring about on the screen. Sharing what it is like to perform his crazy dialogues with actors, he explained that if the words from the page are read out as a joke, they won't make much impression. 

He likened the example to wearing a hat on top of a hat, making the joke redundant. So the best way to go around it is by telling the joke like it is a matter of fact. Hearing the crazy sentences stated so simply is what gives the comedy its edge. 

According to the filmmaker, achieving this nonchalance is the most difficult task he considers for an actor. It is difficult for the actors to trust that the line is funny on its own and need not be sold as a joke to the audience. 

He worked with Jesse Eisenberg in The Art of Self Defense and then Karen Gillan in Dual. Both of them were skeptical if they needed to present their lines in a humorous tone. Yet with time, they learned to trust Riley Stearns and worked just the way he wanted. 

Apart from the dialogue delivery, the actors also need to make a connection with their audience when it comes to their emotions. Despite the film having a sci-fi concept, Dual is also concerned with grief, familiar relationships, isolation, and finding one's own way in life. 

The concepts are universal in being and it is easier to relate with characters that come from such backgrounds. Stearns used moments like where his character, Sarah, would be alone and make her experience emotional outbursts, and these moments are critical to understanding a character at a more intimate level. 

In Addition to humor, the film also has subtle violent moments that will certainly make you feel unsettled. The director did admit that we are so used to violence in films that we have "desensitized" to it and don't think much of it when we see it in minute terms. 

Yet the film will make you think twice about its little "violent" moments and is overtly used to get at humor and critical life. 

Still, he also made it important to point out that the film is not like regular action sequence films. Though Stearns likes stunt sequence films and more, Dual is not a film where you will have 30 straight minutes of people gunning down in the hallways. 

The film "deliberately" uses violence to understate the usage of action and does not overdo such scenes. The director is also working on his next idea for more amazing films. He said that he is keeping an eye out for great ideas and scripts that would make great films. He is also keen on exploring the "television space."

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and can be streamed online. 

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