THE SCHOOL DUEL
Todd Wisemen Jr.’s heart-pounding feature debut, THE SCHOOL DUEL, gets its Canadian premiere at Fantasia 2025. Set in near-future Florida, they have outlawed gun control, and school shootings are at an all-time high. Students wear uniforms with patches on the shoulders. The emblem: a cross overlaid on top of the Liberty Bell. Hyper toxic masculinity is the curriculum. School is a training ground for far-right indoctrination.
Bullied 13-year-old student Sam Miller is the lowest rung on the school totem pole. Relentlessly harassed and physically abused, his only refuge is doom-scrolling through a list of Andrew Tate-like influencers, Call of Duty, and cosplaying with the contents of the gun safe at home.
Sam sees a video about something called School Duel, a government-run initiative where a group of militant children are used as props to promote gun sales, while calling it an outlet to prevent school shootings. The last one standing gets crowned King. This year, Sam’s county is hosting the event. The government comes into his school and selects him to participate. Eager to prove his worth in the wake of his military father’s death, Sam cannot wait to sign the papers. What he doesn’t know is that he’s a martyr, and not a hero.
The entire scheme is broadcast live at home and at school. There is no denying the similarities to Battle Royale and The Hunger Games, which is a compliment. It’s all a show, presented in rounds, each with a different gun chosen by chance on a prize wheel. Unsurprisingly, the game is rigged.
Oscar Nuñez plays Florida Governor, and he lives the role. AR and flag pin, flowery bullshit speech while saying the opposite behind closed doors. Christina Brucato is Sam’s mother. Never without her cross around her neck, her passive efforts to protect her son look all too familiar. Brucato gives her a passionate redemption arc.
Jamad Mays is Sam’s gym teacher, Coach Williams. Coach is the one redeeming character in the film, and Mays delivers much-needed fatherly concern and moral ferocity. Michael Sean Tighe plays School Duel recruiter, Captain Stegmann. His emboldened part in this charade makes him vile. Tighe brilliantly plays the role of sycophant, mascot, and hype man. It is an unforgettable turn.
Kue Lawrence gives Sam a terrifying authenticity. He is mesmerizing. Lawrence’s enthusiasm is matched only by deep trauma. It is a chilling performance.
The funny thing about THE SCHOOL DUEL is that it is not funny after all. An image of a neighbor in a wife-beater mowing his lawn with an AR-style weapon slung over his shoulder might seem like tongue-in-cheek. But, how many times have we seen these same idiots wearing a gun into a Dunkin’s? I forgot how dangerous Donuts are.
The small details are glaring alarm bells. Mothers and teachers dressed like 50s housewives. The Duel cheerleaders, yes, cheerleaders, are also in 50s uniforms. Oh, and their cheers? Wow. To counter that visual, Wisemen Jr. has Sam using an updated, clear-screened smartphone as a reminder that we are, in fact, on the doorstep of this reality. The black-and-white camerawork is fantastic. Kyle Deitz utilizes first-person shooter style imagery through the use of live-stream body cams during gameplay.
Somehow, even knowing where the script is going, witnessing the duel is a visceral experience. The finale is heart-stopping. If you think it is not possible to root for a winner by the end, think again. The film is a simmering pot of violence. It is almost a how-to guide to finding school shooters by not protecting the bullied children or teaching empathy.
THE SCHOOL DUEL is a parade of oversized red flags. The film tackles violent video games, toxic social media influence, faux patriotism, and the bastardization of Christianity, so essentially, it’s a film about today. We cannot take our eye off the kids. Every woman who cried on election night 2016 knows exactly what I mean.
The School Duel trailer:
Official selection
Deauville Film Festival 2024
Miami Film Festival 2025
Sunscreen Film Festival 2025
The School Duel
Honors
50th Anniversary Canal+ Award – Deauville Film Festival 2024
Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay – Sunscreen Film Festival 2025
The School Duel
For all things Fantasia, 
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Evy sits in front of a blurred open doorway as she listens. This trope alone keeps your heart in your throat. Graham Beasley‘s overall framing is jarring as hell. Darkness plays an important role. Beasley rarely places Evy in the center of the frame and uses odd angles and stationary camera pans to keep you off balance in every way. It almost suggests the camera is haunted.
Don’t get ahead of yourself in viewing. ANYTHING THAT MOVES is far more than a high-concept soft porn. I mean, it is also that. The cast fearlessly embraces full frontal nudity, which is incredibly rare for male actors, but more importantly, it honors kink. Audiences will not expect the hidden trauma. Phillips also addresses the demoralization of sex workers.
Shot in Super 16mm, its gritty look completes the homage to 1970s adult films. The Joshua Rains‘s artwork is diabolically genius. The bright spotlight device that denotes an orgasm is brilliant. Casting Nina Hartley and Ginger Lynn Allen was a superior move, as the two essentially served as the film’s intimacy coordinators. By the way, can we acknowledge the importance of that role on a set? I am thrilled we’re adding a Stunt category to next year’s awards season, but Intimacy Coordination is also an art.
Liz Atwater deserves applause for her role, but for the sake of the journey, I won’t say anything more. Todd Terry gives Clive a notable balance of paranoia and fear. It has a solid 10 Cloverfield vibe, with Terry playing the John Goodman role, a would-be savior with perhaps ulterior motives. The audience goes on a rollercoaster of emotions with Terry.
Production design is incredibly detailed inside the trailer. The soundtrack is fantastic. Handheld camerawork from Andrew Duensing is thrilling. It is Bodell’s script that holds you captive. Lena’s relationship with grief becomes an unexpected emotional stronghold. Genre aside, the film comes from a place of transformation and new beginnings.
The consequences of going down that rabbit hole, sometimes literally, are a barrage of repressed childhood memories and the instability of her mother’s treatment. Mia’s trips reveal a trauma monster, more specifically, one made of mom’s blond locks. This hair monster torments Mia throughout her jacked-up journey.
Caitlin Acken Taylor is everything. Mia Sunshine Jones is no easy role, but Taylor lives it. She even creates Mia’s paintings and sculptures. Her fourth wall break, and the precise moment at which it occurs, is jarring and genius. 
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To give you an idea of why Fantasia International Film Festival is my favorite redheaded stepchild of a festival, here are a few films from my youth that still haunt/entertain the crap out of me. 1. Poltergeist: the film my father thought a 2-year-old should watch. 2. The Rocky Horror Picture Show: because a sci-fi musical with Tim Curry in drag should be shown in every Kindergarten class on the planet I inhabit. 3. Princess Bride: one of the most quotable and inconceivable films, I mean that with the utmost respect and if you say otherwise I will fight you (with a sword). 4. Pulp Fiction: a film whose dialogue is filled with sermon, innumerable expletives, drug overdose, and bloody violence for days was just the beginning of a long career of effed up magic. Love it or hate it, it was original. So, for me, Fantasia encompasses all that is weird, wonderful, wacky, wtf, and any other “w” descriptor I’m missing out on in this precise moment.
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