In writer-director Riley Stearns’ latest feature film, Dual, a woman and her new clone are forced to battle to the death in order to win the right to continue living that person’s life. With an array of medieval weaponry provided to them in order to defeat the other, Stearns sets the stage for a gruesome gladiator-type match-off of “Hunger Games” proportions.

However, fans of Stearns and his previous films will know that he’s not interested in grisly bloodsport. Rather, he uses it as a backdrop to show the comic absurdity of people, and the lengths we’ll go to in asserting agency over our lives.

In Dual, Stearns furthers his signature directorial style, filtering dark, depressing stories through an ultra-serious lens. The result is an enjoyably, strangely hilarious time that’s also entertaining and always thought-provoking.

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Making its world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Dual stars Karen Gillan as Sarah, an apathetic woman who moves through her unjoyous life by chowing down on fast food and ignoring her mom’s calls. Her sad existence is immediately upended after she’s diagnosed with a life-ending disease. The doctor says “You’re going to die,” to which Sarah replies, in deadpan delivery, “Why aren’t I crying?”

Gillan’s delivery–along with that of everyone else’s in Stearns’ detached, cold, emotionless world–ends up making every grim line that’s uttered something to grin at. The over-seriousness only highlights the movie’s total silliness, which then sets up the main part of the story: Sarah is offered the opportunity of getting a “Replacement”–a clone of a terminally ill patient–to leave behind as a gift for a grieving family.

Without giving it too much thought, Sarah agrees, and “Sarah’s double” arrives shortly. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder, Sarah’s double begins soaking up everything about Sarah before she eventually takes over when Sarah she dies.

Except that, in a turn of events, Sarah learns that she’s not going to die. Instead, she goes into full remission. Furthering the universe’s idea of a sick joke, Sarah’s double has now lived long enough to develop her own self-awareness and has totally taken over Sarah’s (the original’s) life, including dating her old boyfriend (Beulah Koale) and developing a healthy relationship with her own mom (Maija Paunio). Sarah, then, is edged out of her own life.

The scenes of Karen Gillan acting opposite herself are deceivingly well exacted. Not only is the technical staging impressive, but Gillan even stated that she learned both characters’ lines at the same time, recording one version so that she could run lines with herself.

Under the rare circumstances in which an original and double continue to live, they are forced to enter a broadcasted deathmatch (yes, a duel of the “duals”) to see who can continue living on (because a world in which two clones would be left living would be simply ridiculous). Now inspired to take back her life, Sarah hires a combat trainer, Trent (Aaron Paul) to teach her the ways of fighting so she can defeat her double.

The idea of a weak person deciding to assert themselves through fighting is another idea that’s carried over from Stearns’ last film, The Art of Self-Defense  (which starred Jesse Eisenberg as a white-collar wimp who re-asserted his life through martial arts). It’s great to see Stearns continue sharing his personal passion for jiu-jitsu with audiences, which makes his films even more personal and unique.

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With a sageness in the art of combat that Dwight Schrute would likely appreciate, Trent trains Sarah in various forms of combat, teaching her moves, the best way to use weaponry in different situations, and identifying various methods of death. In these scenes, Gillan and Paul are fantastically paired, and certain scenes are sure to stick in audiences’ minds long after (slow-motion fighting, and hip hop dance classes among them).

I won’t spoil the ending, but by the time the film circles towards its climactic end, you realize that aside from its somewhat sadistically silly conceit, there’s a deeper, more tender-hearted idea that Stearns is ruminating on: what would you do to fight for your life? Would you be prepared to become someone entirely new, and in that regard, kill the old version of yourself? Dual is a thought-provoking, clever, and fun way to explore the idea of what we’re all willing to do to re-assert ourselves and our lives.

95 min.

The review originally ran on January 24, 2022, during the Sundance Film Festival.