Deauville Film Festival 2024: With The School Duel, America Cures Its Ills in Battle Royale Style

The school duellogical and radical film

Almost halfway through, the competition from Deauville intensifies and major themes emerge. Among them, the family AND violence. And these two can unite in this perspective: the United States takes over violently political legacy. This is what emerges from the great success The school duela black and white film that tells a dystopia in which, in an attempt to stop violence and mass killings in schools, an independent, ultra-liberal and ultra-conservative Florida organizes an annual armed clash between high school students to designate a “king”, the sole survivor of a car massacre in which the “eliminated” become “martyrs”.

The fear that grips you from the first minutes Todd Wiseman Jr. It is due to this dystopia, which in reality is not a dystopia since it could appear completely logical in the near future. In the United States, where there are more guns in circulation than people, it is very rare for a month to pass without a mass murder, often in a school.

A warning against extremist ideologies

There is a latent desperation The school duelalways and everywhere despite his energy, as we follow the journey of Samuel, a boy son of a deceased soldier, harassed at school and seeking an unhealthy respect that masculine videos sell him online. Based on a misunderstanding, the school believes it has drawn up a list of potential victims. While he had only noticed those who inspired him… Qualified to participate in “The School Duel”, “Sammy” will then find himself facing 18 other boys, all determined to be the only survivors.

Without falling into sensationalism, skillfully representing armed violence as a banal “game” to which the population is accustomed, Todd Wiseman Jr. creates a very singular and critical work, where his young anti-hero has something of the Travis Bickle of Taxi driverand which appears partly inspired by the Japanese monument Battle Royale. We can also find a European reference, that of Michael Haneke for example, a clinical chronicler of common diseases. In 1h30, with original ideas for the staging and the framing, his glossy black and white and his interpretation inhabited in the role of Sammy of the young Kue Lawrence, The school duel it is a cinematic work, which at the end even offers a cruel twist to its narrative.

A highly successful debut feature, unique in its genre and original in its approach to the subject of firearms in the United States, which should cause a stir and will certainly divide. And which establishes Todd Wiseman Jr. as a director to watch.

Source: Cine Serie

Ray

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