Film Review – Dual

Writer/director Riley Sterns likes the dry stuff. He has a dark sense of humor, especially when portioned out into bite-sized pieces of deadpan delivery and mild absurdity. He was last seen helming the 2019 comedy “The Art of Self-Defense,” which strived to be weird, goofy, and severe, only emerging with a moderate amount of success on all three fronts, and he returns to his specific tastes in oddness in “Dual.” The plot is unnervingly similar to “Swan Song,” a 2021 picture that detailed the experience of a man getting to know his clone before death claims him. “Dual” shares the same story, but Sterns isn’t making a heavy drama. He’s after a more elusive tone with the effort, working with star Karen Gillan to embrace the stillness of silliness, putting his love of idiosyncrasy to the test in this study of low self-esteem, cloning, and combat training. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com